Dicoumarol relieves serum withdrawal-induced G0/1 blockade in HL-60 cells through a superoxide-dependent mechanism.

This work was set to study how dicoumarol affects the cell cycle in human myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells. Cells were accumulated in G0/1 after serum deprivation. However, when cells were treated with 5 microM dicoumarol in serum-free medium, a significant increment in the number of cells in S-phase was observed.

Antioxidant response induced by serum withdrawal protects HL-60 cells against inhibition of NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1.

We have previously shown that inhibition of NAD(P)H:quinone acceptor oxidoreductase 1 with dicoumarol decreases growth and viability of HL-60 cells in the absence of serum. Here we demonstrate that culturing HL-60 cells in serum-free medium in the presence of dicoumarol results in a significant potentiation of apoptosis. However, when cells were preincubated for 24 h without serum before they were treated with dicoumarol, the effect of the inhibitor on cell growth and death was much lower.

A novel plasma membrane quinone reductase and NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 are upregulated by serum withdrawal in human promyelocytic HL-60 cells.

We have studied changes in plasma membrane NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductases of HL-60 cells under serum withdrawal conditions, as a model to analyze cell responses to oxidative stress. Highly enriched plasma membrane fractions were obtained from cell homogenates. A major part of NADH-quinone oxidoreductase in the plasma membrane was insensitive to micromolar concentrations of dicumarol, a specific inhibitor of the NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQOI, DT-diaphorase), and only a minor portion was characterized as DT-diaphorase.