Tuberculosis bacilli still posing a threat. Polymorphism of genes regulating anti-mycobacterial properties of macrophages.

One third of the earth's population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but only 5-10% of the infected individuals will develop active disease over their lifetime. To identify the genes responsible for the variation in the human susceptibility/resistance to tuberculosis (TB) we determined the polymorphisms of three genes crucial for the function of macrophages, in TB patients and healthy controls with no past history of TB. We found no association between the polymorphisms of the NRAMP-INT4, MBL (codons 52, 54, 57) and CD14-159 genes and TB in a Caucasian Polish population. However, we have suggested a possible involvement of CD14 and MBL molecules in the host-mycobacteria interactions on the basis of the significant increase in the serum CD14 and MBL in TB patients compared to healthy controls.