Hemin control of heme biosynthesis in mouse Friend virus-transformed erythroleukemia cells in culture

Hemin treatment of mouse Friend virus-transformed cells in cultured caused a dose-dependent increase in hemoglobin synthesis. By the addition of radioactively labeled hemin and by the analysis of the radioactive heme in hemoglobin, only 60 to 70% of heme in the newly synthesized hemoglobin was accounted for by the exogenously added hemin. In keeping with this finding, hemin treatment increased the activity of two enzymes in the heme biosynthetic activity, i.e. delta-aminolevulinate (ALA) dehydratase and uroporphyrinogen-I (URO) synthase in these cells. Incorporation of [2(-14C)]glycine, [14C]ALA, and 59Fe into heme was also significantly increased in the cells treated with hemin, suggesting that essentially all enzyme activities in the heme biosynethetic pathway were increased after hemin treatment. These results indicate that heme in the newly synthesized hemoglobin in hemin-treated Friend cells derives both from hemin added to the culture and from heme synthesized intracellularly. In addition, these results suggest that the stimulation of heme biosynthesis by hemin in Friend virus-transformed cells is in contrast to the hemin repression of heme biosynthesis in liver cells.