Production of immune interferon by murine T-cell clones from long-term cultures (original) (raw)

Nature volume 291, pages 79–81 (1981) Cite this article

Abstract

Production of leukocyte interferon (IFN-α) and fibroblast interferon (IFN-β) can be induced by a variety of agents1 but immune interferon, IFN-γ, is only obtained when lymphoid cells are stimulated by specific antigens, allo-antigens or T-cell mitogens2,3. Moreover, in bulk cultures, only small quantities of IFN-γ are produced. The type of cell producing IFN-γ has not been unambiguously defined4–6 and so we set out to determine whether a pure T-cell population could produce it, exploiting the knowledge7,8 that T cells can be maintained indefinitely in tissue culture by the addition of T-cell growth factors. Although not all T cells can found long-term cultures of this kind9, cultures of antigen-specific helper, suppressor and killer T cells have been obtained10–15 in this way. We now describe the production of substantial amounts of INF-γ when some (but not all) murine T-cell clones derived from such cultures are stimulated by either concanavalin A (Con A) or phytohaemagglutinin (PHA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Virus Research, German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, FRG
    Fabrizio Marcucci & Holger Kirchner
  2. Institute of Immunology and Genetics, German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, FRG
    Michael Waller & Peter Krammer

Authors

  1. Fabrizio Marcucci
  2. Michael Waller
  3. Holger Kirchner
  4. Peter Krammer

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Marcucci, F., Waller, M., Kirchner, H. et al. Production of immune interferon by murine T-cell clones from long-term cultures.Nature 291, 79–81 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/291079a0

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