Difference in the production of human interferon-alpha and -beta in mouse cells

Human interferon-alpha 1 and interferon-beta genes with their flanking regions were introduced into mouse LMTK- cells. Although transfected cells contained the interferon genes with a similar copy number and produced a similar amount of interferon-specific mRNA, cells containing the human interferon-beta gene secreted about 10 times more human interferon than cells transfected with the human interferon-alpha 1 gene. When the coding region of the interferon-beta gene was replaced by that of the interferon-alpha 1 gene (hybrid interferon beta/alpha gene), the human interferon production of transfected cells fell by approx. one order of magnitude. These results show that in the case of exogenous interferon genes a translational or post-translational mechanism might significantly affect the final level of human interferons, resulting in higher titres of interferon-beta than of interferon-alpha.