CD8A and tuberculosis: To further determine the impact of high absolute neutrophil counts in patients with cavities on the impaired MTB antigen-specific responses, we analyzed the relationship between the proportions of MTB antigen-specific IFN-γ- and TNF-α-secreting T cells (CD4+ and CD8+) with neutrophil counts in all TB patients and found no correlation between TNF-α-secreting T cells with neutrophil counts (Fig. 2a, c).