Growth inhibition of Toxoplasma gondii in cell cultures treated with murine type II interferon.

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Abstract
In vitro assessment was made on the effect of murine Type II interferon (IFN) on the multiplication of T. gondii in mouse cell cultures. Macrophages and L cell cultures treated with Type II IFN prepared specifically from the spleen cell cultures of Toxoplasma or BCG-infected mice markedly suppressed the growth of T. gondii. The enhanced antitoxoplasma activities of these IFN-treated cells were nonspecific and of identical degree, and they depended on IFN concentration and period of incubation in IFN preparations. Pretreatment with 500 U of Toxo-IFN for 24 h before infection with Toxoplasma resulted in a significant decrease in percentage of infected cells and number of intracellular parasites in 1 and 2 h postinfection. These IFN conferred an enhanced antitoxoplasma activity on macrophages more effectively than in L cell cultures, and the activity of the activated macrophages and that of L cells seemed to be somewhat different from each other; the growth inhibitory effect of the activated macrophages was microbicidal; that of L cells was only microbiostatic and transient.