Effect of mouse interferon on cell transformation and virus production in rat cells exogenously infected with moloney murine sarcoma and leukemia viruses.

Foci of transformed cells, produced by MSV(124), appeared to result only from the primary infection, since this virus stock yielded a virus-nonproducing infection. On the other hand, the majority of foci scored in MSV/MLV-infected cultures, were generated by multiple secondary infections with the progenies of the primary infection. Mouse interferon (IF) was highly inhibitory for cell transformation by both virus stocks. However, this inhibition was apparent in MSV(124) infected cultures only if IF was added at least 12 h before infection, whereas in MSV/MLV-infected cultures IF was highly effective even if added 24 h after infection. The inhibition of focus formation by MSV(124) was irreversible after removal of IF, suggesting that IF inhibited an early step before provirus integration into the host genome. By contrast, in MSV/MLV-infected cultures focus formation was almost completely restored after recovery from the IF effect. Nevertheless, examination of virus production after IF removal proved that in MSV/MLV infection, too IF exerted and inhibitory effect before provirus integration.