Course of infection of <i>Leishmania (V.) braziliensis</i> isolates in C57BL/6J mice.

<p>C57BL/6J mice were inoculated in the footpad of the left hind leg with 10⁷ promastigotes obtained from mucosal (ML)/mucocutaneous (MCL) lesions (A) or cutaneous lesions (CL) (B). Lesion sizes were measured weekly. The lesion size was defined as the difference between the infected and uninfected contralateral footpad from two independent experiments with four mice per group with the exception of isolates RS, SAP, IMG3 and RPL5 (one experiment each). Each line represents a distinct isolate and was drawn based on the mean lesion size for each time point. Error bars were not included to facilitate visualization. Eleven weeks after infection, animals were sacrificed and the relationship between lesion size and clinical form (C) as well the parasite load by limiting dilution technique was determined (D). Each point represents a different isolate. The line represents the mean of the group. Statistical analysis was performed by Students's <i>t</i>-test.