Abstract
Summary
Lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from normal individuals and from patients with a variety of myelo- and lym-phoproliferative disease states were examined for spontaneous interferon production. Interferon was synthesized by 17 of 21 lines investigated. No correlation was found with the disease state, and cultures from normal individuals produced interferon. Interferon production by lymphoblastoid cell lines is not correlated with infection of the cultures by EBV. The other nonviral inducers of interferon were studied and excluded as being responsible for the spontaneous production. It is proposed that interferon production by these cell lines is the result of a derepression of gene expression associated with the lymphoblastoid state analogous to interferon synthesis induced by lymphocyte mitogens.
The senior author is grateful to several investigators for helpful discussions during the course of this work: to Drs. M. A. Fink, and M. Goldman, immunofluorescence of EBV; Drs. J. A. Rose, K. Berns, and R. Stern, ribonuclease experiments; and to Dr. Samuel Baron for his continuing advice and encouragement.
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