Table 6.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis-induced interferon (IFN)-γ⁺ natural killer (NK) cells

	% IFN-γ+ NK cells
PBMC from	Control PBMC	M.tb-stimulated PBMC
M-TB (n = 5)	1·0 ± 0·5	5·8 ± 0·8*
A-TB (n = 5)	0·4 ± 0·3	2·5 ± 0·9
N (n = 5)	0·6 ± 0·3	7·5 ± 0·7*

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with moderate tuberculosis (M-TB) and advanced tuberculosis (A-TB) and healthy controls (N) were incubated in complete medium (control) or with M. tuberculosis (M.tb) for 24 hr and then the percentage of IFN-γ⁺ cells on CD3^– CD56⁺ cells was evaluated by flow cytometry. Results are expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). Statistical differences: control versus M. tuberculosis-stimulated PBMC:

^*P < 0·05.