Journal of Dental Research, Vol 63, 1369-1375, Copyright © 1984 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals
Human gingival fibroblast production of interferon
G. G. Rose, G. J. Pinero, P. A. O'Neill, H. Nikai and C. J. Mahan
Three human gingival fibroblast cell lines were used to determine whether
they could be induced by a synthetic RNA and superinduced by metabolic
inhibitors to produce interferon (IFN-beta). When established procedures
were followed for human fetal or newborn skin fibroblast cell lines, the
adult gingival fibroblasts produced comparable amounts of IFN-beta. It was
shown that the superinducers alone would not cause an IFN-beta production
response, and that the absence of serum in the production medium also
inhibited the production of IFN-beta. The effect of IFN-beta on cell growth
was carried out in T-flasks seeded with 10(5) HEp-2 cells. After one and
two wk, the cells of triplicate control flasks and triplicate flasks
containing various dilutions of the production media were enumerated to
determine a cell multiplication inhibition (CMI) value. A correlation
between the IFN-beta content and the CMI effect, however, was not obtained,
and it was concluded that other CMI agents, possibly more potent than the
IFN-beta, were being produced by the stimulated human gingival fibroblasts.
Cell protein assays which gave a high ng/cell protein content correlated
with TEM micrographs which showed clusters of complex lysosomes, primarily
in cells cultured in the IFN-beta-containing nutrient. However, since
commercial IFN-beta initiated no such lysosomal response, it was further
concluded that the complex lysosomes were due to CMI agent(s) other than
IFN-beta.
