Murine natural killer cells contribute to the granulomatous reaction caused by mycobacterial cell walls

Mice injected with deproteinized cell walls prepared from the strain H37rv of Mycobacterium tubepculosis develop a granuloma-like lesion in which NKT cells are predominant. NKT cells play a primary role in the granulomatous response, because the latter does not occur in J alpha 281(-/-) mice, which miss NKT cells. The glycolipidic fraction of the cell walls is responsible for the recruitment of NKT cells; the recruiting activity is associated with fractions containing phosphatidylinositol mannosides. These results define a powerful experimental set up for studying the in vivo induction of NKT cell responses to microbial components.