Interferons, Alpha Interferon, Beta Interferon, Fibroblasts, Bioreactors, Genetic engineering, Glycosylated Human Interferon Beta

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	Interferons - Due to heavy demands for a variety of interferons for cancer therapy, recently interferon α and interferon β have been made in large quantities in Europe and Japan. For production of interferon α 8000 litre cell culture vessels have been used by Wellcome Foundation. Similarly, interferon - β was produced by cells grown on microcarriers at scales of greater than 1000 litres.
Genetic engineering has also been used for interferon production. For instance, interferon genes were inserted in cultured mouse fibroblasts. In one case, these genes inserted in fibroblasts expressed constitutively for the production of glycosylated human interferon β. Special bioreactors have been used for the culture of these fibroblasts on suitable microcarriers, and yields as high as 5000 units of interferon β /ml/day can be obtained.