IFN-γ responses in BALB/c mice vaccinated with different vaccine approaches before and after 3 months challenge infection.

<p>Levels of IFN-γ ten days, short-term protection (STP), and twelve weeks, long-term protection (LTP) after final boosting (post-vaccination) (A, B), and 3 months after challenge infection (post-infection) (C, D). Splenocytes were isolated from vaccinated mice, stimulated with rgp63 (5 µg/ml) and were cultured for 96 h. The supernatants were collected, and assayed for IFN-γ through ELISA. Figures (E, F) represent <i>in vitro</i> blocking experiments either with anti-CD4⁺ or anti-CD8⁺ or both mAbs before (post-vaccination) and after <i>L. donovani</i> infection (post-infection). The results are shown as the mean absorbance values ± S.E. of five individual mice per group, representative of two independent experiments with similar results. OV- only vector. * <i>p</i><0.05, ** <i>p</i><0.01, *** <i>p</i><0.001 as assessed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey's multiple comparison test.