Fig. 2

Comparison of infection of C57BL/6 mice by L. amazonensis Josefa strain versus LV78 strain. Leishmania amazonensis (Josefa or LV78 strains) were cultured on Schneider’s medium. C57Bl/6-UFF were infected with stationary-phase promastigotes of L. amazonensis Josefa strain (a, b) or LV78 strain (c, d). Lesion sizes were measured at the indicated days and expressed as the difference of thickness between non-infected and infected footpads (a, c). Parasite load was measured at the end of the experiment and expressed as the mean number of parasites per footpad (b, d). The data (means ± standard deviations; n = 4–5) are representative of two independent experiments producing the same result profile. *P ≤ 0.05 in comparison to peak of infection (a, 49 days; c, 55 days; see Table 2 for details)