title: Comparison of mitogen- and virus-induced interferon production in whole blood cell cultures of patients with various solid carcinomas and controls.
abstract: Using a sensitive immunoassay, the mitogen-induced production of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and virus-stimulated IFN-alpha production was investigated in whole blood cell cultures of 115 control subjects and 225 untreated patients with various solid carcinomas. In the cultures of the tumor patients, significantly lower levels of IFN-gamma were found as compared to the controls (p < or = 0.001) and the differences were most evident in those tumor groups containing mostly patients with advanced clinical stages. IFN-alpha values were only slightly lower in the cultures of the carcinoma patients, with p values < or = 0.05. Statistically, there was no correlation between IFN-alpha and IFN-gamma values. Since the IFN-gamma differences between tumor and controls and the correlation to groups with higher tumor stages were much clearer than IFN-alpha differences, we conclude that IFN-gamma measurements after polyclonal induction may be the better parameter for showing a depressed cellular immunological activity in patients with malignancies than virus-induced IFN-alpha secretion.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunobiology, University of Freiburg, FRG.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Elsässer-Beile
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: von Kleist
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008934:Mitogens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D009522:Newcastle disease virus / Q000502:physiology*; D013268:Stimulation, Chemical
chemical_list: D016898:Interferon-alpha; D008934:Mitogens; D007371:Interferon-gamma