Lack of Correlation Between the Glucocorticoid Receptor Density and the in Vitro Growth-Inhibitory Effect of Dexamethasone in Human Leukemia Cell Lines

Abstract

We have developed a whole cell binding assay with [³H] dexamethasone as the ligand for the measurement of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) content of normal and malignant human leukocytes. A panel of eleven phenotypically well-defined human leukemia cell lines were investigated for their GR expression and in vitro sensitivity to glucocorticoids.

There were great variations in the GR contents of different cell lines (2200–18100 sites/cell) while no marked differences in the binding affinities of the GRs were seen. No obvious correlation was found between the GR content and the phenotype of the cell line nor between the GR content and the in vitro growth inhibition by glucocorticoids.