Abstract
STUDIES of the effects of viral infections have largely been concerned with intracellular interactions between viral and cellular functions. There is increasing realisation that the cell surface has a major role in cellular function and various cell surface active substances, for example, concanavalin A (con A)1 and phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)2, exert profound effects on cellular metabolism. As the cell surface possesses receptors specific for various viruses and viral antigens, it might be expected that certain viruses could affect cellular function as a result of cell surface interaction. Proliferation is a characteristic response of lymphocytes exposed to these cell surface active compounds. This response can be readily quantitated using 3H-thymidine incorporation. We report here that influenza viruses of the H2N2 subtype are potent mitogens for both B and T lymphocytes3. This finding arose during studies aimed at developing assays for cell-mediated immunity to influenza virus infection4–7. We observed that spleen cells from normal mice showed increased levels of 3H-thymidine incorporation when exposed in vitro to the A/Singapore/1/57 virus. This model system should provide insight to questions of lymphocyte triggering and bring attention to this aspect of cell–virus interaction.
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BUTCHKO, G., ARMSTRONG, R., MARTIN, W. et al. Influenza A viruses of the H2N2 subtype are lymphocyte mitogens. Nature 271, 66–67 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/271066a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/271066a0
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