Priming with interferon-alpha 1 or interferon-alpha 2 enhances the production of both subtypes simultaneously.

A short period of incubation with interferon-alpha ("priming") increases the amounts of IFN-alpha formed by human peripheral blood leukocytes when subsequently induced with a virus. We investigated specifically the effect of priming on the production of two individual subtypes, IFN-alpha 1 and IFN-alpha 2. The rate of interferon synthesis and the amounts formed were equally potentiated in leukocytes primed with either IFN-alpha 1 or IFN-alpha 2. Whichever of these was used for priming had no selective effect on the relative increased production of IFN-alpha 1 or IFN-alpha 2.