eLife Assessment
In this useful study, the authors utilize published scRNA-seq data to highlight the potential importance of mast cells (MCs) in TB granulomas, presenting a solid comparative assessment of chymase- and tryptase-expressing MCs in the lungs of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected individuals and non-human primates. While the authors appropriately discussed the inconsistencies across models, adoptive transfer experiments in MC-deficient mice would substantially strengthen the causal link between MCs and TB outcomes, providing more direct functional validation of the proposed role of MCs in TB pathogenesis.