Immune (y) interferon production by murine T cell lymphomas

Various cloned murine T cell hybridomas and T cell lymphomas were evaluated for their ability to produce interferon (IFN). Two T cell tumor clones, L12-R1 and L12-R4, derived from the spontaneously in vitro transformed cell lines L12 originally established from fetal calf serum-primed C57BL/6 spleen cells were found to produce high IFN amounts upon mitogen stimulation. Phorbol myristate acetate led to maximal IFN production (2187 IU) by L12-R4 cells at concentrations of 2 x 10(-7) M, whereas concanavalin A and phytohemagglutinin induced lower levels of IFN synthesis (160 to 243 IU). None of the cell lines tested produced IFN constitutively or upon lipopolysaccharides stimulation. The IFN was characterized as immune (y) by being labile at pH 2 and neutralized by two rabbit anti-murine IFN-y antisera but not by antiserum to murine leukocyte (alpha) and fibroblast (beta) IFN. Phenotypic characterization of IFN-y-producing cells showed the L12 clones to be Thy-1.2+, Lyt-1+, 23-, and Ig-. The L12-R4 tumor cell therefore provide a unique source of IFN-y for purification, and may represent a useful model for studying the molecular mechanisms involved in T cell differentiation leading to IFN-y production.