Acid-labile human interferon alpha production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated by HIV-infected cells.
We compared the properties of interferon (IFN) induced in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by free infectious HIV to that induced by HIV-infected cells fixed with glutaraldehyde. While the IFN induced by HIV was a conventional IFN alpha, the IFN induced by HIV-infected cells, although sharing with IFN alpha both antigenic properties and molecular weight, was strongly inactivated by treatment at pH lower than 4. The ability to induce acid-labile IFN alpha was exerted both by the chronically-infected cell line H9/HIV and by normal PBMC infected in vitro with HIV, while infection of inducers cells with viruses other than HIV made these cells capable of inducing only acid-stable IFN alpha. The cell involved in the production of this type of IFN seems to be B-lymphocyte. Because the presence of acid-labile IFN alpha in the serum of AIDS patients has been described, we suggest that this unusual IFN derives from interaction between circulating B-lymphocytes and the HIV-infected cells.
Capobianchi
M R
MR
Institute of Virology, University of Rome, Italy.
De Marco
F
F
Di Marco
P
P
Dianzani
F
F
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000276:immunology*; D002460:Cell Line; D006678:HIV / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000378:metabolism*; D013997:Time Factors
D007370:Interferon Type I