Research Article

Microenvironment of Mycobacterium smegmatis Culture to Induce Cholesterol Consumption Does Cell Wall Remodeling and Enables the Formation of Granuloma-Like Structures

Figure 8

Number of granuloma-like structures. The granuloma-like structures in infected macrophages were quantified after Ziehl-Neelsen staining and the number of granulomas was plotted as mean ± SE. Data from noninfected macrophages (control) were compared with macrophages that were infected with M. smegmatis after their culture in Middlebrook 7H9 broth (7H9+Gly) or minimal medium (MM), with or without glycerol and/or cholesterol (MM+Gly; MM+Gly+Chol; MM+Chol; and MM). p < 0.05 compared with the uninfected control group. The experiment was performed in triplicate.