Responsiveness of human cells trisomic for chromosome 21 to the antiviral action of human immune interferon.

Seven human diploid cell strains (three disomic and four trisomic for chromosome 21) were tested for sensitivity to preparations of the three types of human interferon (IFN). Relative to the disomic control strains, the trisomic-21 cells strains were found to be more sensitive to leukocyte (HuIFN-alpha) and to fibroblast IFN (HuIFN-beta). This chromosome 21-controlled increase in sensitivity to HuIFN-alpha and -beta, was not always accompanied by a parallel increase in sensitivity to HuIFN-gamma. In fact, in some D21/T21 comparisons the sensitivity to HuIFN-gamma and that to HuIFN-alpha and -beta diverged, suggesting that the cellular receptor site(s) for the different IFN types may be different. The presence of a high concentration (greater than 2%) of bovine serum in the culture medium inhibited the responsiveness of all cells to HuIFN-gamma but not to HuIFN-alpha or HuIFN-beta.