A novel nonclassic beta2-microglobulin-restricted mechanism influencing early lymphocyte accumulation and subsequent resistance to tuberculosis in the lung.

In this study, we compared the course of a low-dose aerosol Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in mice bearing gene disruptions for the β 2-microglobulin molecule, the CD8 molecule, and the CD1 molecule. Over the first 50 d of infection, the CD8- and CD1-disrupted mice were no more susceptible to infection than were the control mice. In contrast, the bacterial load in β 2-microglobulin gene-disrupted mice increased rapidly and attained much higher levels than that observed in the other gene-disrupted mice and in control mice. A second major difference between the β 2-microglobulin gene-disrupted mice and the other animals was the development of lung granulomas; both the CD8- and CD1-disrupted mice developed essentially normal granulomas except for an apparent increased lymphocyte influx in the CD8-disrupted mice. The β 2-microglobulin gene-disrupted mice, on the other hand, developed granulomas virtually devoid of lymphocytes, with these cells instead localized within prominent perivascular cuffing adja...