Preparation of Cell-Wall Fractions from Mycobacteria

Research extending over 50 years has implicated various components of the mycobacterial cell-wall matrix in many host responses associated with tuberculosis and other mycobacterioses (1 ). The observed responses originally included granuloma formation, high-titer IgG antibodies, and the state of the T cell-mediated immunological anergy evident in multibacillary leprosy and, more recently, in the induction of specific cytokines, phagocytosis of the organism, cellular refractivity to cytokine stimulation, and regulation of phagosome-lysosome fusion.