Figure 3

Splenocytes from CD43-deficient mice produce low levels of IFN-γ. CD43^+/+ and CD43^−/− mice were infected intravenously with 5 × 10⁷ amastigotes of Leishmania (L.) infantum chagasi, and 30 days after infection splenocytes were isolated and assayed for cytokine production. After 3 days of in vitro culture with freeze and thawed lysates of Leishmania (L.) infantum chagasi promastigotes, as described in the Methods sections, splenocyte supernatants were harvested for determination of (A) IFN-γ, (B) TGF-β and (C) IL-10 by ELISA. The y-axis represents the levels of cytokines, detected by specific ELISA assays, expressed in ng/ml. Asterisks represent statistical significance between groups (p < 0.05). All experiments were repeated at least 3 times.