Cellular profile of the skin from dogs naturally infected by <i>L. infantum</i>.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Animals were categorized according to their clinical status into asymptomatic (AD, <i>n</i> = 10), oligosymptomatic (OD, <i>n</i> = 10), or symptomatic (SD, <i>n</i> = 15) or categorized according to skin parasite density into low (LP, <i>n</i> = 12), medium (MP, <i>n</i> = 11), and high (HP, <i>n</i> = 12) parasite density. The control groups are represented by CD (<i>n</i> = 16). Relationship between clinical forms and percentage of cells in the skin of dogs naturally infected with <i>L. infantum</i> (<b>A</b>). Relationship between skin parasite density and percentage of cells in the skin of dogs naturally infected with <i>L. infantum</i> (<b>B</b>). The data are presented as boxplots. The box stretches from the lower hinge (defined as the 25th percentile) to the upper hinge (the 75th percentile) and therefore contains the middle half of the score in the distribution. The median is shown as a line across the box. Therefore, one fourth of the distribution is between this line and the bottom or the top of the box. Significant differences (<i>p</i><0.05) compared with CD and SD or HP are indicated by symbols * and <i>Δ</i>, respectively. Spearman's correlation indexes (<i>r</i> and <i>p</i> values) are shown on the graphs when applicable.