Interferon Beta (IFNb) is belongs to type I interferons (IFNs) family which a large subgroup of interferon proteins that help regulate the activity of the immune system.The IFNb proteins are produced in large quantities by fibroblasts. They have antiviral activity that is involved mainly in innate immune response. Two types of IFNb have been described, IFNb1 (IFNB1) and IFNb3 (IFNB3). IFNb1 is used as a treatment for multiple sclerosis as it reduces the relapse rate. To test the effect of IFNb on cell apoptosis, A549 cells were seeded into triplicate wells of 96-well plates at a density of 5,000 cells/well and allowed to attach, replaced with serum-free overnight, then the medium was replaced with 5% serum standard DMEM  prior to the addition of various concentrations of recombinant pig IFNb. After incubated for 48h, cells were observed by inverted microscope and cell proliferation was measured by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). Briefly, 10 µl of CCK-8 solution was added to each well of the plate, then the absorbance at 450 nm was measured using a microplate reader after incubating the plate for 1-4 hours at 37 ℃. Apoptosis of A549 cells after incubation with IFNb for 48h observed by inverted microscope was shown in Figure1. Cell viability was assessed by CCK-8(Cell Counting Kit-8 ) assay after incubation with recombinant IFNb for 48h. The result was shown in Figure2. It was obvious that IFNb significantly decreased cell viability of A549 cells. The ED50 of recombinant pig IFNb is 4.9 ug/ml.

Figure 2. Cell apoptosis of A549 cells after stimulated with IFNb.