A Plant Steroid, Diosgenin, a New Megakaryocytic Differentiation Inducer of Hel Cells

Abstract We investigated the effect of plant steroids 5α-spirosten-3β-ol (diosgenin), 5α-spirostan-3β-ol (tigogenin) and 5α-spirostan-3β-ol-12-one (hecogenin) on the human erythroleukemia cell line (HEL TIB 180) and found that diosgenin addition to HEL cell cultures induces morphological and biochemical changes characteristic for megakaryocyte cells. Diosgenin-treated cells exhibit, at the ultrastructural level, increases in size in cytoplasmic and nuclear complexity. At the biochemical level, we demonstrated that diosgenin-treated HEL cells increased glycoprotein Ib (GpIb) expression as previously described in the megakaryocytic differentiation of HEL cells induced by nanomolar dose phorbol myristate acetate treatment.