Loss of chromosomal high mobility group proteins HMG1 and HMG2 when mouse neuroblastoma and Friend erythroleukemia cells become committed to differentiation.

Chromosomal high mobility group (HMG) proteins HMG1 and HMG2 from mouse neuroblastoma cells and Friend erythroleukemic cells were analyzed by acetic acid/urea/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Compared to rapidly growing cells, levels of HMG1 and HMG2 were decreased in mouse neuroblastoma cells that had been induced to differentiate by serum deprivation. This comparison revealed a reciprocal relationship between these HMG proteins and H10, a histone known to be in higher concentrations in nondividing cells. When cell growth was inhibited by means of density inhibition, however, HMG1 and -2 levels were not affected in either HeLa or mouse neuroblastoma cells, even though H10 did not accumulate. This observation establishes that HMG1 and -2 contents are not correlated with mitotic rate per se. Treatment of mouse neuroblastoma by sodium butyrate, which stops cell division without commitment to differentiation, had no effect on the level of HMG1 and -2. However, the level was decreased by dibutyryl cyclic AMP and dimethyl sulfoxide treatments, which, like serum deprivation, induced irreversible morphological differentiation in the neuroblastoma cells. Moreover, induction of differentiation (hemoglobin synthesis) in Friend erythroleukemic cells by dimethyl sulfoxide showed a decrease in the contents of HMG1 and -2. These observations suggest that preferential loss of HMG1 and -2 in mouse neuroblastoma and Friend erythroleukemia cells may be related to commitment of these cells to differentiation.