Heterogeneity of purified mouse interferons.

A procedure for obtaining highly purified stable interferon from mouse L cells is described. Interferon with a specific activity of 2.5 times 10-8 reference units/mg of protein is composed of 10 to 11 polypeptides. They differ in their molecular size as determined by electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gels containing sodium dodecyl sulfate. The molecular weight range is estimated to be from the smallest at 20, 000 to the largest at 32, 000. At least six of the polypeptides are glycoproteins and each of the polypeptides can be obtained as an apparent homogeneous entity and each has interferon activity.