Differences between Mycobacterium-Host Cell Relationships in Latent Tuberculous Infection of Mice Ex Vivo and Mycobacterial Infection of Mouse Cells In Vitro

Figure 12

Fibronectin and type I collagen (collagen I) in the cells in the fragments of mouse splenic granulomas. The scale bars are ((a, right panel), (c, right panel)) 20 μm each and ((a)–(e)) 10 μm each. ((b), (d)-(e)) Colocalization of the markers on confocal images of cells (yellow signal). Nuclei stained by DAPI (blue signal). ((a), (c)) Immunochemical localization of (a) fibronectin and (c) type I collagen in granuloma cells and control mouse peritoneal macrophages (Mph) and splenic fibroblasts (Fibr). The brown color indicates the presence of the markers in these cells. The black arrows indicate fibroblasts; the other cells are macrophages, dendritic cells, and lymphocytes. (b) Confocal immunofluorescent localization of fibronectin (green signal) and CD11b (red signal) in granuloma macrophages. In the right panel, the same fragment as in the other panels restained for acid-fast BCG-mycobacteria by the ZN method. A macrophage with BCG-mycobacteria reproducing in it is indicated by the white arrows on the fluorescent images and the black arrow on the ZN image. (d) Confocal immunofluorescent localization of type I collagen (green signal) and CD11b (red signal) in a granuloma macrophage with BCG-mycobacteria. In the right panel, the same fragment as in the other panels restained for acid-fast BCG-mycobacteria by the ZN method. (e) Confocal immunofluorescent localization of fibronectin (green signal), type I collagen (green signal), and filamentous actin (red signal) in the control peritoneal macrophages and fibroblasts. Abbreviations as in Figure 1.

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