Fig. 1.

a–b Percentage of epithelioid cells (ECs) and multinucleated giant cells (MGCs) expressing MPT64 antigen (a), and caspase 3 for apoptotic cells (b) detected by immunohistochemical staining in the lymphadenitis granulomas caused by M. tuberculosis (n = 30). The median, 25th and 75th percentiles and minimum and maximum values are shown. The marks filled circle indicate the outliers. The statistically significant results are marked with p values. c–d Linear regression was performed to determine the relationship between apoptotic ECs and the MPT64-antigen-containing ECs (c), and apoptotic MGCs and MPT64-antigen-containing MGCs (d) among the tuberculous granulomas. There was a significant negative correlation between apoptotic MGCs and MPT64-antigen-containing MGCs