Early stationary phase culture supernatant accelerates growth of sputum cultures collected after initiation of anti-tuberculosis treatment.

We investigated the effect of Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture supernatant added to sputum cultures collected during the first 8 weeks of anti-tuberculosis treatment. With ongoing treatment duration, time to culture positivity decreased significantly in supernatant-enriched cultures, possibly due to stimulation of dormant or slowly metabolizing M. tuberculosis cells.