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The worldwide epidemiology of cigarette smoking is strikingly similar to that of tuberculosis (TB). Presumably, this geographic overlap reflects both socioeconomic and biological factors, but, interestingly, the precise biological mechanisms have yet to be clarified.
Colorado researchers exposed mice to cigarette smoke for several months, then challenged them and control mice with low-dose aerosol of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. At 1 month after infection, smoke-exposed mice developed significantly greater mycobacterial loads in the lungs and the spleen and significantly larger lung lesions than did the control mice. A series of in vitro assays indicated that the smoke affected a range of immune events early in TB infection: It suppressed tum…