10/03/2026
What am I looking at? 🤷🏾♀️
💡This image - on the front cover of the Journal of Experimental Medicine - shows a human TB granuloma in lung tissue. The tissue sample was generously donated by a patient undergoing surgery to repair TB-related damage.
🔎 Granulomas are organised clusters of immune cells that contain infections such as those caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacterium responsible for TB. Whether that containment is successful or not determines if the infection will lead to disease or not. Using advanced techniques to study individual cell behavior within tissue, scientists at AHRI, with local and international partners, found that many cell types behave differently depending on their location within the granuloma. The red, green, and yellow cells shown, for example, are all macrophages, immune cells that fight infection by engulfing and killing microbes like Mtb. Their colours reflect the different proteins they express on their surfaces, indicating distinct functions. The green cells, only found on the inner edge of the granuloma, are known as SPP1 macrophages. This type of macrophage is important in cancer biology, where it is linked with poor clinical outcome, but have not previously been observed in TB.
✅ Discoveries like this improve our understanding of human-Mtb interactions at the microscopic level and may support the development of new treatments to reduce the impact of TB.
📢 This innovative work is only possible through the longstanding collaboration between researchers at AHRI and UKZN, the cardiothoracic surgeons at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital and King Dinuzulu Hospital in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, and the generous contributions of study participants.
Full article here ➡️ https://rupress.org/jem/article/223/3/e20251067/281353/Single-cell-and-spatial-profiling-highlights-TB
