A simple and efficient microassay method for titration of interferon.

A simple and efficient microassay method for the titration of interferon was developed by the use of microtest plates for handling a large number of samples. L929 cells pretreated with interferon were infected with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and cultured in the presence of 3H-uridine. The activity was expressed by the reduction of extracellular radioactive RNA released after destruction of the infected cells, which was measured in terms of the radioactivity incorporated into cold TCA-insoluble materials in the culture fluid. The interferon titer determined by this method was in the same order as that by the plaque reduction method. The activity by this method was parallel to, but lower than that expressed by the yield reduction of infectious viruses. This method requires only 0.025 ml of each test sample with higher than 1 NIH ref. unit/ml to detect its interferon activity and takes 2 to 3 days for assaying hundreds of samples.