As part of this interrelation between the endocrine system and the immune system, culture supernatants of PBMCs from TB patients stimulated with mycobacterial antigens inhibited the secretion of DHEA by the human adrenal cell line NCI-H295-R (30) whereas treatment with anti-TGF-β neutralizing antibodies reversed this inhibitory effect (37). This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and tuberculosis.