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A 3D Human Lung Tissue Model for Functional Studies on Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection
Published on: October 5, 2015
Elevated Natural Killer Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity Is Associated with Cavity Formation in Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Shanshan Li1, Dongpo Wang2, Panjian Wei3
1Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University/Beijing Tuberculosis & Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing 101149, China.
Abstract:
Cavitation is a major pathological feature of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). The study is aimed at investigating the mechanism of natural killer (NK) cells participating the cavity formation during Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection. Human peripheral blood samples were donated by pulmonary TB patients with cavity or not. Real-time quantitative PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were performed to analyze the expression of cytokines secreted by NK cells. And the cytotoxicity of NK cells was compared between two groups. Our data showed that NK cells were more abundant in cohorts of cavity. Increased abundance of granzyme A and granzyme B was observed in culture supernatants of NK cells isolated from cavitary TB patients, which also resulted in a higher level of nonviable MTB-infected monocytes. Our data firstly demonstrates that NK cells participate in cavity formation in pulmonary TB patients. The elevated level and increased cytotoxicity of NK cells accelerate the cavitary formulation.
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