Immunopathology of Tuberculosis Disease across Species

Abstract

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), the etiological agent of human TB, is closely related to all other members of the MTB complex, many of which are host adapted to a number of animal species. Strains of the MTB complex naturally infect a variety of mammals from rodents to cattle (Smith et al., 2009). Hence many animal models of pulmonary MTB infection have been developed over the past decades, by varying the bacterial strain/species, animal species, size, and route of pathogen inoculation. ough most of these species would not naturally develop MTB-induced TB disease, these models have proven useful for the study of TB pathogenesis and immunopathology and for the preclinical testing of drugs and drug combinations. MTB infections of mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits,CONTENTS Overview of Species Specic Characteristics 21e Mouse 21 e Rat 22 e Rabbit and the Guinea Pig 22 e Nonhuman Primate 23A Macroscopic View of TB-Infected Lungs across Species 24 Summary and Lessons Learned 26 References 2720 and nonhuman primates are the most commonly used animal models of human tuberculosis.