ABSTRACTPreviously, we observed that both major membrane protein II ofMycobacterium leprae(MMP-ML) and its fusion withM. bovisBCG (BCG)-derived heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) (Fusion-ML) are immunogenic and that recombinant BCG secreting either of these proteins effectively inhibits the multiplication ofM. lepraein mice. Here, we purifiedM. tuberculosis-derived major membrane protein II (MMP-MTB) and its fusion with HSP70 (Fusion-MTB) in a lipopolysaccharide-free condition and evaluated their immunostimulatory abilities. Both MMP-MTB and Fusion-MTB activated monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DC) in terms of phenotype and interleukin-12 (IL-12) production, but Fusion-MTB more efficiently activated them than MMP-MTB did. The IL-12 production was a consequence of the ligation of those recombinant proteins with Toll-like receptor 2. TheM. tuberculosis-derived andM. leprae-derived recombinant proteins activated naïve T cells of both CD4 and CD8 subsets, butM. tuberculosis-derived proteins were superior toM. leprae-derived proteins and fusion proteins were superior to MMP, regardless of the origin of the protein. Memory-type CD4+T cells obtained from BCG-vaccinated healthy individuals seem to be primed with MMP-MTB by the vaccination, and bothM. tuberculosis-derived recombinant proteins produced perforin-producing CD8+T cells from memory-type CD8+T cells. Further, infection of DC and macrophages withM. tuberculosisH37Ra and H37Rv induced the expression of MMP on their surface. These results indicate thatM. tuberculosis-derived MMP, as a sole protein or as part of a fusion protein, may be useful for developing new vaccinating agents against tuberculosis.