Growth Inhibition Assay of Human Alveolar Macrophages as a Correlate of Immune Protection Following Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guérin Vaccination.

Background: In order to eliminate tuberculosis (TB), an effective vaccine is urgently needed to prevent infection with . A key obstacle for the development of novel TB vaccines is the lack of surrogate markers for immune protection against .

Methods: We investigated growth rates of in the mycobacterial growth inhibition assay (MGIA) as a marker for mycobacterial growth control of human bronchoalveolar lavage (BALC) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) before and after vaccination with Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) of healthy adult volunteers.