Mouse interferons enhance the accumulation of a human HLA RNA and protein in transfected mouse and hamster cells.

A recombinant clone (pJY150R1.1) encoding the human major histocompatibility antigen (HLA-B7) was introduced into mouse cells and hamster cells by cotransformation with selectable genes. The exposure to mouse interferon of the cells transformed to HLA-B7+ resulted in a severalfold increase in the level of HLA antigen and RNA. The HLA-B7 clone used for the transfection includes a 670-base pair DNA sequence upstream from the coding segment. It remains to be established if the 670-base pair segment is necessary and/or sufficient to make the transcription of the HLA gene responsive to interferon.