Sidman C L, Marshall J D, Shultz L D, Gray P W, Johnson H M
Nature. 1984;309(5971):801-4. doi: 10.1038/309801a0.
Two classes of molecules often released after the interaction of T lymphocytes, macrophages and antigen are B-cell maturation factors (BMF)1-3 and immune (gamma) interferon (IFN-gamma)4-7. BMFs directly induce the maturation of resting B lymphocytes to the state of active immunoglobulin secretion, while IFN-gamma is defined by the reduction of viral infectivity in vitro. However, interferons have been shown to have a variety of effects and they have also been reported both to increase and decrease B-cell differentiation in intact animals and complex cellular mixtures in vitro. Here we show that murine IFN-gamma produced by recombinant DNA technology shows similar biological effects to BMFs from two other sources. All three preparations induce immunoglobulin secretion by both normal resting murine splenic B cells and the comparable B-cell tumour line WEHI-279.1 (refs 1, 3). IFN-gamma and the other two BMFs are not identical, however, as anti-IFN-gamma antibodies block the effects on B cells of IFN-gamma, but not those of the other two lymphokines. IFN-gamma may be one of several molecules with a direct role in driving the maturation of resting B cells to active immunoglobulin secretion.
T淋巴细胞、巨噬细胞与抗原相互作用后，通常会释放出两类分子，即B细胞成熟因子（BMF）1 - 3和免疫（γ）干扰素（IFN - γ）4 - 7。BMF可直接诱导静息B淋巴细胞成熟，使其进入主动分泌免疫球蛋白的状态，而IFN - γ则通过体外降低病毒感染性来定义。然而，干扰素已被证明具有多种效应，在完整动物以及体外复杂细胞混合物中，其对B细胞分化的影响既有促进作用也有抑制作用。在此我们表明，通过重组DNA技术产生的小鼠IFN - γ与另外两种来源的BMF具有相似的生物学效应。这三种制剂均可诱导正常静息小鼠脾B细胞以及类似的B细胞肿瘤系WEHI - 279.1分泌免疫球蛋白（参考文献1, 3）。然而，IFN - γ与另外两种BMF并不相同，因为抗IFN - γ抗体可阻断IFN - γ对B细胞的作用，但不能阻断另外两种淋巴细胞因子的作用。IFN - γ可能是直接促使静息B细胞成熟并分泌主动免疫球蛋白的几种分子之一。
