[Interferon responses of various populations of lymphocytes of inbred mice with various degrees of sensitivity to the western equine encephalitis virus].

The sensitivity of mice of three lines: CBA, BALB/C, and C57BL/6 (males aged greater than or equal to 4-5 and one week) to peripheral inoculation with Western equine encephalomyelitis (WEE) virus was studied. The C57BL/6 line was found to be the most and CBA the least sensitive. The first generation hybrids between these lines are intermediate in their sensitivity to WEE virus. A correlation was established between the increased sensitivity to WEE virus of C57BL/6 mice and the defect of the interferon system in these mice manifested by the extremely low capacity of their thymocytes for production of beta and alpha-interferons, as well as by a significant decrease of interferon responses of splenocytes to Newcastle disease virus, L-1 (alpha-interferon), lafarin, beta-interferon, concanaxalin-A (alpha-interferon) after immunization with antigens of different origin.