Effects of interferon alpha on the sheep erythrocyte "receptor" of human lymphocytes

The percentage of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) which formed rosettes with sheep erythrocytes declined from 62 +/- 2% to 29 +/- 4% (p = 0.001) when PBLs were incubated 18 h at 37 degrees C. In the presence of alpha interferon (IFN-alpha), a dose-dependent increase occurred in the percentage of sheep erythrocyte-binding PBL at the end of incubation compared with PBL incubated without IFN-alpha. Change in the number of sheep erythrocyte "receptors" (SER) probably did not account for the observed modulation of rosetting capacity, since the frequency and density of an SER-associated determinant (T11, as defined by immunofluorescence flow cytometry using the monoclonal antibody OKT11A) was unaffected by incubation with or without IFN-alpha. Treatment of PBL, control or IFN-alpha-treated, with neuraminidase (0.4 u/ml), restored rosetting capacity to levels characteristic of freshly prepared PBL. Neuraminidase did not affect rosetting or T11 expression by freshly prepared PBL, nor did it affect T11 expression on PBL cultured with or without IFN-alpha. We thus postulated that steric interference with SER function by sialic acid residues might result from de novo protein synthesis and glycosylation at the cell surface. Inhibition of either protein glycosylation by tunicamycin or protein synthesis by cycloheximide prevented the incubation-induced depression of rosetting capacity. IFN-alpha may modulate functional expression of SER and other surface receptors by altering cell-surface glycoprotein composition and distribution.