Figure 5

Impact of malnutrition on parasite replication and arginase activity in Leishmania infantum -infected BALB/c mice. Groups of BALB/c (n =5) mice were fed with a low protein diet (=malnourished (MN) group, 0.7% protein) or normal diet (=control group, 14.4% protein) and 7 days later, were infected with L. infantum. After nine days, parasite load (A) and arginase activity were measured in the spleens (B). BMMΦ were activated with IL-4, IFN-γ and TNF-α or left unactivated (nil) and were infected with L. infantum for 4 days and parasite replication (C) and arginase activity (D) were determined as described in material and methods. Data show the results of one representative experiment out of two independent experiments. *: p <0.05. nd = not detectable.