Interferon production and resistance to viral infection induced by poly I-poly C in chick embryo cells. I. Effect of growth medium.

Abstract

Two different growth media, one based on Eagle's minimum essential medium (MEM) and the other on Earle's balanced salt solution–lactalbumin hydrolysate–yeast extract (YLE), were used for growing primary chick embryo cells (CEC), and resistance to viral infection and interferon production induced by polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly I·poly C) were compared. In CEC grown in Eagle's MEM, treatment with poly I·poly C at a concentration as low as 1.0 ng/ml was sufficient to induce a detectable resistance to infection with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), while more than 300-fold concentrated poly I·poly C was required to induce a similar resistance when the cells were grown in YLE. The cells grown in YLE did not produce an appreciable amount of interferon, whereas a significantly higher level of interferon was produced by the cells grown in Eagle's MEM. A similar phenomenon was observed in the interferon production of chick embryo cells treated with ultraviolet light (UV)-irradiated Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and in the induction of resistance to vaccinia virus in cells treated with poly I·poly C. It was found that the response of cells, bathing in one growth medium, to poly I·poly C was not affected by replacing it with the other at the same time with the addition of poly I·poly C, and that the response of CEC was strongly dependent upon the medium used for cultivation. These facts suggested that the observed difference in the response of cells to poly I·poly C was not due to a direct interaction between the inducer and medium components but to the physiological state of CEC established during their growth. Which component of YLE was responsible for such a lowered response of cells to poly I·poly C was also examined, and the marked reduction of PDD50 by the replacement of lactalbumin hydrolysate of YLE with amino acids and the increase of PDD50 by addition of lactalbumin hydrolysate to MEM suggested that lactalbumin hydrolysate might play an important role in this phenomenon.