Inhibition of DNA synthesis causes stem cell differentiation: induction of teratocarcinoma F9 cell differentiation with nucleoside analogues of DNA-synthesis inhibitors and their inducing abilities counterbalanced specifically by normal nucleosides.

Nucleoside analogues inhibiting DNA synthesis can induce cell differentiation in teratocarcinoma cells. We have examined how their abilities to induce F9 cell differentiation were specifically counterbalanced by their corresponding normal nucleosides. We have also compared the differentiation inducing ability of the wild type F9 cells with that of its thymidine kinase-less mutant using plasminogen activator, as a differentiation marker, which is expressed at a very early stage of endodermal cell differentiation and can be assayed quantitatively. The results obtained were clearly explainable by the conventionally accepted action mechanisms of the nucleoside analogues, thus strongly suggesting that their abilities to induce cell differentiation were direct consequences of the inhibition of DNA synthesis; thus this confirms the notion that a close association exists between the inhibition of DNA synthesis and the induction of teratocarcinoma stem cell differentiation.