Treatment of Daudi B-lymphoblastoid cells with low concentrations of either natural or recombinant human a-interferons inhibits cell proliferation and modulates the expression of a number of cell-surface antigens. Using a panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) identifying determinants expressed at the surface of normal plasma cells, and polyclonal antibodies against surface and cytoplasmic immunoglobulin, we have found that growth inhibition is accompanied by plasmacytoid differentiation. Assays of growth stimulation of heterologous cells indicate that the culture medium from interferon-treated Daudi cells contains substantially more B-cell growth factor activity than that from control cells. However, the interferontreated cells exhibit an impaired ability to respond to both these autocrine factors and exogenous factors produced by another Burkitt lymphoma line. These findings show that, in the case of Daudi cells, growth inhibition by interferons is closely associated with both terminal differentiation and a refractoriness to growth factors. In this system IFN-a may therefore be considered to be a B-cell differentiation factor, suggesting a possible basis for the anti-proliferative effects observed with certain human B-cell malignancies.
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