Table 4.

Interleukin (IL)-10 modulated natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity

	% cytotoxicity
PBMC treated with	M-TB	A-TB	N
–	23 ± 3	12 ± 2	31 ± 3
IL-10	19 ± 2	10 ± 2	19 ± 5*
anti-IL-10	27 ± 5	16 ± 2	–
M.tb	33 ± 2	16 ± 2	46 ± 4
M.tb + IL-10	22 ± 4	15 ± 3	30 ± 4*
M.tb + anti-IL-10	46 ± 1*	42 ± 3*	–

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 10 patients with moderate tuberculosis (M-TB), 12 patients with advanced tuberculosis (A-TB) and seven healthy controls (N) were incubated with or without Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) in the presence or absence of interleukin (IL)-10 or anti-IL-10 for 18 hr and then used as effector cells against K562 target cells (E:T ratio 40 : 1). Results are expressed as the percentage of cytotoxicity [mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM)]. Statistical differences: IL-10/anti-IL-10-treated cells versus untreated cells:

^*P < 0·05.