Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-175). / Includes abstract. / Protective immunity against mycobacterial infection requires an effective cytolytic response, in addition to an intact Type l (Th1) cytokine pathway. Natural killer (NK) cells and cytolytic T-cells (CTL) are essential components of protective immunity against tuberculosis (TB) and mediate granule-dependent killing of infected cells. Granulysin, an antimicrobial protein, and perforin, a pore-forming molecule, have been found to co-localise in the granules of these two cell types. Granulysin has been shown to be directly cytotoxic to extracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) and, together with perforin, is cytolytic against intracellular mycobacteria. This project evaluated the role of these two cytolytic mediators in TB.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/12403 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Semple, Patricia Lynn |
| Contributors | Ress, Stanley, Shephard, Enid |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Health Sciences, Division of Clinical Immunology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral Thesis, Doctoral, PhD |
| Format | application/pdf |
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