Summary
Short- and long-term effects of IV administration of human fibroblast interferon (HFIF) on natural cytotoxicity was studied in patients with HBsAg-positive chronic active hepatitis. Short-term kinetics demonstrated a transient decrease of natural cytotoxicity, when measured 2 or 4 h after IV administration of HFIF (1−10×106 U/injection). Twenty-four hours after the initial injection of HFIF natural cytotoxicity was increased to 196%–282% of pretreatment values. The kinetics of NK activity during chronic stimulation with HFIF revealed the following features: (a) The highest relative increase was seen during the initial phase of HFIF application; (b) enhanced NK activity could be maintained for 2–4 weeks of therapy; (c) at a plateau of high activity short-term increases were much less pronounced; (d) in all patients monitored so far over a period of several weeks a gradual decrease of augmented NK activity has been observed despite continued administration of high doses of HFIF.
These findings indicate that in vivo administration of HFIF results in an augmentation of NK activity in man. Prolonged treatment with HFIF seems to ‘exhaust’ the NK cell system. Monitoring of natural cytotoxicity may be of critical importance for the determination of an administration schedule of interferon for future therapy.
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Pape, G.R., Hadam, M.R., Eisenburg, J. et al. Kinetics of natural cytotoxicity in patients treated with human fibroblast interferon. Cancer Immunol Immunother 11, 1–6 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00205767
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00205767