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. 1995 Jul;63(7):2801–2803. doi: 10.1128/iai.63.7.2801-2803.1995

Inhibition of Chlamydia pneumoniae growth in HEp-2 cells pretreated with gamma interferon and tumor necrosis factor alpha.

J T Summersgill 1, N N Sahney 1, C A Gaydos 1, T C Quinn 1, J A Ramirez 1
PMCID: PMC173379  PMID: 7790105

Abstract

An in vitro culture system was used to study the effects of increasing concentrations of human cytokines on the intracellular replication of Chlamydia pneumoniae. HEp-2 cell monolayers, pretreated for 24 h with 200 U of human recombinant gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) per ml restricted the intracellular replication of C. pneumoniae. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha; 25 ng/ml) exhibited a synergistic effect with IFN-gamma by reducing the concentration of IFN-gamma necessary to restrict intracellular growth to 100 U/ml. The addition of 200 micrograms of tryptophan per ml significantly reversed the inhibitory effects of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha, suggesting involvement of the indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase pathway in the restriction process.

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Selected References

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