Limited Mycobacterial Infection of the Liver as a Consequence of Its Microanatomical Structure Causing Restriction of Mycobacterial Growth to Professional Phagocytes

Among sites of extrapulmonary growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the liver is the least infected. Our data suggest that this is due to the complete restriction of mycobacterial growth to liver macrophages. Unlike in organs more persistently seeded by M. tuberculosis, in the liver the bacteria do not infect cell types other than professional phagocytes.