Table 2.

Expression of CD56, CD16, CD11a and CD69 molecules on CD3^– CD56^dim natural killer (NK) cells from patients with tuberculosis (TB) and healthy controls (N)

	CD56		CD16		CD11a		CD69
PBMC from	Control	M.tb	Control	M.tb	Control	M.tb	Control	M.tb
M-TB	305 ± 25	299 ± 31	265 ± 34	291 ± 41	271 ± 17	250 ± 48	134 ± 26*	189 ± 26
A-TB	292 ± 29	281 ± 18	132 ± 22*2	110 ± 23*2	139 ± 38*1	109 ± 26**1	75 ± 6***2	75 ± 5***3
N	282 ± 37	258 ± 40	254 ± 62	268 ± 62	256 ± 22	236 ± 17	189 ± 20	238 ± 21

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 22 patients with moderate tuberculosis (M-TB), 20 patients with advanced tuberculosis (A-TB) and 14 healthy controls (N) were cultured without or with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (control and M.tb, respectively) for 24 hr and the expression of CD56, CD16, CD11a and CD69 molecules was determined. Results are expressed as mean fluorescence intensity (MIF), and the mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM) is shown. Statistical differences: patients versus N:

^*P < 0·05

^**P < 0·02

^***P < 0·005; A-TB versus M-TB:

¹P < 0·05

²P < 0·02

³P < 0·005.