Elevated Natural Killer Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity Is Associated with Cavity Formation in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients

Figure 3

Cytotoxicity of NK cells against MTB H37Rv-infected monocytes. Freshly isolated NK cells from nine pulmonary TB patients with cavity and eight pulmonary TB patients with noncavity were cocultured with MTB H37Rv-infected monocytes to analyze the ability of cytotoxicity. Representative dot plots show the proportion of nonviable CD14+ monocytes infected with MTB H37Rv after coculture with NK cells isolated from pulmonary TB patients with (a) cavity or (b) not. (c) Comparison of the proportion of nonviable MTB H37Rv-infected CD14+ monocytes after coculture with NK cells from pulmonary TB patients with cavity or not. value was derived using a Mann–Whitney test.

(a)

(b)

(c)