Fig. 3
Evaluation of intranasal LaAg vaccine efficacy in the chronic stage of infection. C57Bl/6-UFF mice received 10 μg of LaAg by the intranasal route on days -14 and -7 of infection. Non-vaccinated controls received PBS alone. On day 0, animals were infected with 5 × 105 promastigotes of L. amazonensis (Josefa strain). a Lesion sizes were measured at the indicated days and expressed as the difference of thickness between non-infected and infected footpads. b Parasite load was measured on day 98 of infection and expressed as the mean number of parasites per footpad. The data (means ± standard deviations; n = 4–5) are representative of three independent experiments producing the same result profile. *P ≤ 0.05 in comparison to PBS controls as follows: a Day 42 (t (6) = 2.853, P = 0.0291); Day 49 (t (6) = 6.113, P = 0.0009); Day 56 (t (6) = 3.970, P = 0.0074); Day 64 (t (6) = 3.416, P = 0.0142); Day 72 (t (6) = 2.481, P = 0.0478); Day 78 (t (6) = 2.921, P = 0,0266). b t(6) = 3.472, P = 0.0070