Malnutrition leads to impaired lymph node barrier function and increased early visceralization of <i>L.donovani</i>.

<p>Age-matched female weanling BALB/c mice were fed the control (well-nourished; WN) or polynutrient deficient diet (PND) for 28 days and infected with 10⁶<i>L. donovani</i> promastigotes in the skin over each footpad. Panels A through G: At 3 days post-infection the lymph node, spleen and liver were harvested for determination of parasite burden by qPCR of parasite DNA with conversion to number of parasites by use of a standard curve. (A) Parasite burden per mg lymph node, (B) Total lymph node parasite burden, (C) Parasite burden per mg spleen, (D) Total spleen parasite burden, (E) Parasite burden per mg liver, and (F) Total liver parasite burden. (G) Calculated percent lymph node barrier function (the percentage of measured extradermal parasites retained in the lymph node) = 100−((parasite burden (PB) in liver+PB in spleen)/(PB liver+PB spleen+PB LN)) for the PND and WN mice infected with <i>L. donovani</i> for 3 days. The data shown are the mean and SEM (error bars) from a single experiment (n = 8 per group) representative of 3 independent experiments for lymph node and 6 independent experiments for liver and spleen. (*, P<0.05; **, P<0.01).