Production of human lymphoblastoid (Namalva) interferon

Use of Lymphoblastoid Namalva Cell Cultures in a Toxicity Test. Application to the Monitoring of Detoxification Procedures for Fluorocarbons to be used as Intravascular Oxygen-Carriers

Cultures of lymphoblastoid Namalva cells have been used to check the absence of toxic impurities in fluorocarbons destined for biomedical applications. The test comprises the measurement of growth rate and viability in the presence of the fluorocarbon, and of growth after reseeding. It was used to establish a procedure for the detoxification of a family of fluorocarbons by evaluating the effect on toxicity of a series of individual or combined treatments. A convenient, rapid and industrially feasible procedure was developed which includes washing with 10 % aqueous KOH, shaking with charcoal and filtration over alumina.

Media for cultivation of animal cells: an overview

The increasing interest in products from animal cells has caused an extensive research effort towards development of media for cell cultivation.The basic components in the media used for cultivation of animal cells vary depending upon the characters of the cells and the cultivation method. Basic components consist of an energy source, nitrogen source, vitamins, fats and fatty soluble components, inorganic salts, nucleic acid precursors, antibiotics, oxygen, pH buffering systems, hormones, growth factors and serum. Extensive efforts are directed towards developing serum-free or chemically defined media. Among the serum substitutes is a long list of hormones and growth factors.

Synthesis and expression of recombinant interferon alpha-5 gene in tobacco chloroplasts, a non-edible plant

The production of interferon alpha from microbial to mammalian expression system, have certain precincts in terms of cost, scalability, safety and authenticity. Modern biotechnology exploits transgenic crops to get large quantities of complex proteins in a cost-effective way. In order to overcome several challenges from biosafety point of view, the chloroplast transformation strategy is one of the best approaches since plastids are strictly maternally inherited in most of the cultivated species. In the present study the interferon alpha 5 gene was synthesized by using complex set of oligos. After sequence confirmation of the synthesized gene, the histidine residues along with the thrombin protease site were engineered upstream to the synthetic interferon alpha 5 gene. The recombinant fragment was then tethered with chloroplast light inducible promoter, rbcl followed by sequential cloning to develop chloroplast transformation vector to target the cassette into the inverted repeat region of plastome through two events of homologous recombination. The putative transgenic plants obtained through biolistic delivery method and as a result of antibiotic selection of bombarded leaves, were subjected to different rounds of selection and regeneration for homoplasmicity. The spectinomycin-resistant shoots were analyzed through Polymerase Chain Reaction and Sothern blotting. The expression of introduced synthetic genes was recorded using Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbant Assay technique. It was experienced that mature leaves contained comparatively high levels of interferon compared to young and senescence leaves.

Mill Hill strain of parainfluenza 1 virus is a potent human interferon inducer

The interferon (IFN)-inducing capacities of the widely used Cantell strain of Sendai and the Mill Hill strain of parainfluenza 1 were compared. The Mill Hill strain proved to be a more potent inducer of IFN than the Cantell strain when tested in human peripheral blood leukocytes and amniotic membrane cultures. The Mill Hill strain did not produce defective particles readily, nor did these particles appear necessary for IFN induction. The Mill Hill strain of parainfluenza 1 virus appears superior to the Cantell strain of Sendai virus for the production of natural human IFN.