In contrast, adults with active pulmonary TB in a highly TB endemic area in Indonesia had significantly lower plasma granulysin concentrations than did controls, these concentrations increasing after 2 months of anti-TB therapy to values similar to those of controls, and having increased even further after completion of anti-TB therapy. These changes in granulysin concentrations occurred predominantly in patients Fulvestrant research buy in whom IFN-γ negative T cells were expressed, suggesting that in TB the cellular sources of IFN-γ and granulysin are partly non-overlapping (14). Similar findings have

been reported for Italian children, the lowest concentrations having been found in TB patients who were PPD negative at the time of diagnosis (15), indicating the involvement of granulysin and IFN-γ in curative immune learn more responses against Mtb. In chronic pulmonary TB, lung tissue biopsy has shown reduction in amounts of perforin and granulysin in relation to granzyme

A, while higher per cell expression of perforin and granulysin is associated with bacteriological control, suggesting that perforin and granulysin could be used as markers or correlates of immune protection in human TB (16). However, effective host mechanisms against Mtb infection are not well understood, this lack of understanding being a problem in regard to vaccine C-X-C chemokine receptor type 7 (CXCR-7) development and immunotherapy for TB. Moreover, so far there is limited information regarding the roles of IFN-γ and granulysin in recurrent TB. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether granulysin and IFN-γ responses are associated with clinical disease in patients with newly diagnosed, relapsed and chronic pulmonary TB in northern

Thailand, where TB is endemic. One hundred and fifty-five pulmonary TB patients (aged 9 to 88 years) were recruited from the outpatient and inpatient clinics of Chiang Rai Hospital and Mae Chan Hospital, in the north of Thailand. These included 102 male and 53 female patients with newly diagnosed and previously treated pulmonary TB. Patients with extrapulmonary TB and pulmonary TB/HIV seropositive were excluded. All patients with pulmonary TB had clinical symptoms and a confirmed diagnosis on the basis of presence of acid-fast bacilli in sputum on microscopic examination, positive cultures of Mtb, medical history and chest radiographic findings. Patients were categorized according to World Health Organization criteria (1), which include ascertaining whether the patient has previously received TB treatment. The TB drug regimens were based on the recommendations of the National Tuberculosis Program, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. Standard TB treatment drugs consist of streptomycin (S), isoniazid (H), rifampicin (R), pyrazinamide (Z) and ethambutol (E).