CL patients have high levels of MMP-9 and low levels of TIMP-1 when compared with healthy subjects.

<p>PBMC were obtained from healthy subjects (HS) (<i>n = 12</i>), early CL (ECL) (<i>n = 19</i>) and CL patients (<i>n = 18</i>), and levels of MMP-9 (<i>A</i>) and TIMP-1 (<i>B</i>), determined by ELISA in culture supernatants of PBMCs upon stimulation with soluble <i>Leishmania</i> antigen (SLA) (5 µg/ml) for 72 hours. <i>C</i>, Ratio between MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in culture supernatants of PBMCs upon stimulation with SLA. The box-and-wickers plot shows the minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, and maximum values of a set of data. The wickers represent error bars and those represent minimum and maximum values, indicating variability outside the upper and lower quartiles. Data shown from a representative experiment of five performances. *p<0.05; **p<0.005; ***p<0.0005.