The unstimulated or antigen-specific levels of 8 of the 26 host markers evaluated (fractalkine, IFN-α2, SAA, IP-10, EGF, IFN-γ, MMP-2, MMP-9) were significantly different (p<0.05) between the TB cases and controls (50% of whom were QFT-IT positive) either in the 7-day unstimulated supernatants, or following 7-day stimulation with at least one of the four antigens evaluated. This evidence concerns the gene MMP9 and tuberculosis.