Figure 3.

(a) Interferon alpha associated with BCG vaccine pretreatment of epithelial cells and derived macrophages from human PBMC drives Th1 type cytokines production and restricted bacterial growth. Monolayers of pneumocytes type II (A549 cell line) were pretreated with IFN-alpha (500 UI) and BCG (MOI of 10 : 1). After 24 h, these cells were M. tuberculosis infected with a MOI of 1 : 10. A significant reduction of bacterial load (by 1 log) with respect to human bronchial epithelial cells/PBS or BCG treated (P < 0.05) and infected cells. In derived macrophages from human PBMC, at 20 h after infection, a 0.4 log reduction was observed. (b-c) In each case IFN-γ, IL-12, TNF-α, and IL1-β were determined in the supernatant by immunoenzymatic assay (ELISA).