Fig. 2

a Expression of LC3⁺ macrophages in TB patients after adjunct therapy with PBA and/or vitD₃ and simultaneously under treatment with anti-TB drugs. MDMs derived from the patients were infected with the virulent strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv for 2 h. The cells were fixed and stained with DAPI to visualize the nuclei (blue), and with anti-LC3, followed by the addition of Alexafluor 488-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG (green color). One representative immunofluorescence image out of 6 independent replicates are shown; scale bars: 10 μm. b Percentage of LC3 expressing cells among uninfected and Mtb-infected monocyte-derived-macrophages (MDM) in the four treatment arms