Insensitivity to interferon of two subclones of human endometrial carcinoma cell line, HEC-1

Two cloned cell lines, HEC-IC and HEC-ID, derived from the human endometrial adenocarcinoma cell line HEC-I, were found to be as resistant to the antiviral and anticellular activities of interferon (IFN) as were the parental cells, and 2'-5' oligoadenylate (2-5A) synthetase was not induced in these clones by IFN treatment. They were sensitive to the cytotoxicity of natural killer (NK) cells but their sensitivity was not changed by treatment of the cell lines with IFN. Binding of [3H]-leucine-labelled IFN-alpha to HEC-IC cells was examined, and Scatchard plot analysis showed that HEC-IC cells did not have any high-affinity binding sites for IFN-alpha. The cells had hyperploid chromosomes. HEC-IC had three copies of chromosome 21 while HEC-ID had only one copy of chromosome 21. The results suggest that these clones may have the structural gene for the IFN receptor but that functional receptor sites may be absent.