Interferon Formation in Man under Normal and Pathological Conditions

Our earlier experiments on animals showed that the ability of leukocytes to produce interferon in vitro reflects the reactivity of the animals. Besides determining interferon in various materials obtained from healthy and sick subjects, the interferon-producing ability of their leukocytes accordingly was investigated also. The basic assumption was that leukocytic interferon can be used as an indicator of the reactivity of the donor in certain virus infections. So that the results obtained by investigation of patients could be correctly evaluated, it was first necessary to investigate whether interferon may be present in the serum and urine of healthy persons and also to determine the mean levels of production of leukocytic interferon. With possible age variations in mind, tests were carried out with leukocytes from persons of different ages (the leukocytes of healthy and sick children were investigated jointly with N. V. Vorotyntseva, Z. N. Kleimenova, and M. P. Korzhenkova).