Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and mycobacterial heat shock proteins in lymph node tissue from patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis

We demonstrated that not whole Mycobacterium tuberculosis but its particular antigens, hsp70(Mtb), hsp65(Mtb), and bsp16(Mtb), are present in lymph node tissues of patients with sarcoidosis (SA). hsp16(Mtb), occurs in the early stage of SA, whereas hsp70(Mtb) occurs in stage II of SA. hsp65(Mtb) is highly expressed in the capillary vessels in lymph node tissues in patients with SA.