L'importanza del macrofago nella malattia tubercolare

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an intracellular pathogen with a particular defensive systems allowing its survival, and even growth, inside the hostile environment constituted by the macrophage. Such cell is provided with killing mechanisms consisting in reactive oxygen and nitrogen intermediates and is coadiuvated, in this microbicidal ativity, by the gamma-interpheron produced by the T-Lymphocyte. The mycobacterium, by its side, has the property of limiting such microbicidal macrophage activity thank to the production of adequate enzymatic systems. Opposed to these defensive properties of the microorganism, GSH (as well as its precursor N-acetylcysteine) is essential for the intracellular killing of the mycobacterium both directly and through the production of GSNO.