Properties of a nuclear protein marker of human myeloid cell differentiation.

The Mr 55,000 nuclear antigen present in the human promyelocytic cell line HL-60 is a basic protein that is extracted from nuclei or chromatin by 0.35 M NaCl. The antigen is confined to the nucleus of the interphase HL-60 cell as judged by immunocytochemical localization but disperses throughout the cell during mitosis. The antigen was not detected in leukemic cell lines with blast cell properties or in cell lines representing other lineages. Additional cell lines (ML-1, ML-2, and U937) with myeloid cell characteristics similar to those of the HL-60 cells, which also differentiate in vitro, express the antigen. The presence of antigen in normal human myeloid cells in peripheral blood and bone marrow is consistent with its proposed role in nuclear events associated with normal human myeloid cell differentiation.