Fig. 4: LmexCen^−/− parasites do not cause lesions and induce a protective immune response in vivo.

For this experiment, BALB/c female mice were inoculated in the footpad with 2 × 10⁶ LmexWT or LmexCen^−/− promastigotes in the stationary phase. a Lesion thickness in the infected footpad. b, c Representative pictures of footpad inoculated with either LmexWT (b) or LmexCen^−/− (c) promastigotes at 9 wpi. d, e Parasitic burden in the footpad (d) and draining lymph nodes (e) at 9 wpi. f–i Cytokine levels of IL-12 (f), IFN-γ (g), IL-10 (h), and IL-4 (i) in the draining lymph nodes at 9 wpi. Data show one representative experiment out of two independent experiments and show mean ± SEM, N = 5 for each group at each time point. Unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test was performed to compare statistical significance at each time point. A P-value < 0.05 was considered significant. In all panels * represents P ≤ 0.05, ** represents P ≤ 0.01, and *** represents P ≤ 0.001.