Systems biology predicts that fibrosis in tuberculous granulomas may arise through macrophage-to-myofibroblast transformation.

ABSTRACT: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection causes tuberculosis (TB), a disease characterized by development of granulomas. Granulomas consist of activated immune cells that cluster together to limit bacterial growth and restrict dissemination. Control of the TB epidemic has been limited by lengthy drug regimens, antibiotic resistance, and lack of a robustly efficacious vaccine. Fibrosis commonly occurs during treatment and is associated with both positive and negative disease outcomes in TB but little is known about the processes that initiate fibrosis in granulomas. Human and nonhuman primate granulomas undergoing fibrosis can have spindle-shaped macrophages with fibroblast-like morphologies suggesting a relationship between macrophages, fibroblasts, and granuloma fibrosis. This relations

SUBMITTER: Evans S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7793262 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature