Figure 2

Immunological and parasitological parameters associated with the inoculation route of ΔHSP70-II promastigotes in BALB/c mice. Groups of mice (n = 4) were inoculated with 1 × 10⁷ ΔHSP70-II promastigotes by the intraperitoneal (IP), intravenous (IV) or subcutaneous (SC) route. (A) Four weeks after infection the anti-Leishmania specific IgG1 and IgG2a titers were determined by ELISA. Differences between IgG1 and IgG2a titers for each group of mice were compared by using the two-tailed paired Student's t-test: *, p = 0.016; **, p = 0.066; ***, p = 0.019. (B) Production of NO by peritoneal macrophages from ΔHSP70-II infected (IP, IV, and SC) or control mice. (C) Parasite burdens in spleen and liver of ΔHSP70-II infected mice. The data are represented as the mean + standard deviation.