Lymph nodes are sites of prolonged bacterial persistence during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in macaques
Fig 1
FDG PET CT analysis of Mtb infection in lymph nodes of cynomolgus and rhesus macaques.
A. PET/CT scans of 3 different macaques (monkey numbers 16213, 9811, 16113 showing different trajectories of thoracic lymph nodes at different time points post infection. B. Representative serial PET CT FDG SUVR plots showing several lymph nodes visible by PET at 2 weeks post infection in four different animals. Trajectories of individual lymph nodes in an animal is shown to be independent of each other. Each line is a lymph node. Dotted line represents the cut-off for calling FDG+ LNs “hot” (SUVR≥5). C. Most lymph nodes visible (SUVR≥2.3) on scan by PET 1–2 days before necropsy harbor live Mtb (top left panel), while only a small proportion of those that are not seen by PET have live Mtb (top right panel). Most”hot” lymph nodes (SUVR≥5) were CFU+ compared to only half of “warm” lymph nodes (SUVR 2.3–4.99) (bottom panels).