Production of interferon-gamma from human peripheral blood lymphocytes

Abstract

Interferon- 7 (IFN- 7) was produced from human peripheral blood lymphocytes (Hu-PBL) by stimulating them with various kinds of mitogens. T-cell mitogens such as Con A and PHA-M were much more potent than B-cell mitogen such as PWM in producing IFN- 7 from Hu-PBL. The combined treatment of TPA with these mitogens enhanced IFN- / production ten fold compared with the single treatment of each mitogen. Both DNA synthesis and IFN- 7 production yielded bell-shaped dose-response curves for a given population of Hu-PBL in response to Con A. The effect of fetal calf serum(FCS) on IFN- 7 production was found to be critical: titer of IFN- 7 produced was very low in the absence of FCS and reached peak point at 2% FCS, beginning to decrease precipitously with an increasing FCS concentration up to 20%. Using the relationship between IFN- 7 production and mitogenic stimulation, it was found that one of factors responsible for the decrease of IFN- 7 production at the high serum concentration could be the binding of Con A to serum proteins which rendered Con A to be removed from the production system.