Protection or exacerbation of <i>L. major</i> infection in mice immunized with PpSP15 or PpSP44.

<p>Mice immunized with PpSP15, PpSP44 or CTL DNA were challenged with 500 <i>L. major</i> metacyclics and 0.5 pairs of SGH. The graph shows the number of parasites per ear at 11 weeks post-challenge as measured by Real time PCR. This result is representative of the parasite load at six and nine weeks post-challenge. Bars represent the mean ± the SEM for ten mice per group. Panels A–C reflect the pathology of the ears 11 weeks post-challenge in mice previously immunized with PpSP44 (A), PpSP15 (B) and CTL DNA (C). Asterisks indicate significance compared to mice immunized with CTL DNA (<i>p</i><0.05). Data are representative of three independent experiments.