The direct role of all these macrophage parasitic phenomena in vitro has yet to be demonstrated in pathogenesis but they support the hypothesis that macrophages are a controlling measure that require wider host immunity to clear cryptococci. In addition, macrophages may act as Trojan horses for the dissemination of cryptococci, a model that has been elegantly supported by showing that mice infected intravenously with cryptococci within macrophages showed much faster dissemination than free yeast (Charlier et al., 2009).