A novel aminosteroid is active for proliferation inhibition and differentiation induction of human acute myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells

A novel aminosteroid, 2 beta-(4'-methyl-1'piperazinyl)-3 alpha,17 beta-dihy droxyl-5 alpha-androstane (HY), was found to inhibit proliferation of HL-60 leukemia cells and induce these cells to differentiate toward macrophage-l ike cells from the following evidence. (1) It inhibited HL-60 cell prolifer ation by cell counts, colony counts and MTT assay; (2) It caused morphologi cal changes toward macrophage-like cells after culture for 6 days; (3) It i nduced NET reduction activity; (4) It induced alpha-naphthyl acetate estera se activity and (5) it induced CD11b and CD14 expression indicated by flow cytometry analysis. There is potential for this novel aminosteroid in the t reatment of myeloid leukemia. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.