Scientific Publications by FDA Staff

Curr Protoc Immunol 2011 Apr;Chapter 14:Unit14.25

Measurement of macrophage-mediated killing of intracellular bacteria, including Francisella and mycobacteria.

Elkins KL, Cowley SC, Conlan JW

Macrophages activated by T cell cytokines are a critical defense mechanism against intracellular bacterial pathogens. This unit presents two general methods for assessing the capacity of mouse macrophages, activated with either soluble cytokines or whole immune T lymphocytes, to control or reduce numbers of intracellular bacteria residing within them. "Measurement of killing" is inferred from a reduction in the number of colony-forming units (cfu) of bacteria at the end of a culture period, compared to the input numbers of cfu at initiation of culture, to the peak numbers of cfu measured during culture, or to a control group in which killing is expected to be poor.