[The granulomatous inflammation in bacterial infections]

The relevance of the granuloma to protection against intracellular pathogens has been recognized for a long time. More recently, it has become clear that the cell interactions which take place in a granuloma are highly complex. It appears that not only activation of antibacterial function in infected macrophages by helper T cells, but also lysis of infected host cells is of importance and that a coordinated interplay between different populations of T cells and mononuclear phagocytes is required for effective host resistance.