Comparative antiproliferative efficacies of human alpha and gamma interferons.

The cell growth inhibitory efficacies of preparations of human alpha and gamma interferons (IFNs) have been tested on a variety of human cell lines. Human IFN-gamma was found to be more effective at inhibiting the growth of HeLa and U-amnion cells than was human IFN-alpha. The Daudi cell line, on the other hand, which exhibits a strong anticellular effect in response to treatment with human IFN-alpha, was found to be relatively insensitive to the anticellular effect of human IFN-gamma, as were a variety of other lymphoid cell lines. The inability of the IFN-gamma to inhibit the growth of the Daudi cells is paralleled by its inability to induce the synthesis of proteins observed to be synthesized in these cells in response to IFN-alpha.