Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection caused by a protozoan from the
Trypanosomatidae family, genus Leishmania. A well established mouse model of
visceral leismaniasis disease exists using a strain (BALB/C) of mice susceptible to
the disease. An experiment was performed in order to examine the effects of an antiIL-10
immunomodulatory agent on cytokine production by T cells in a mouse model
of Leismaniasis. L. major promastigotes were injected into the ears of BALB/c mice.
After 4 weeks T cells were isolated from the lymph nodes and cultured for 48 hours
in the presence of 5 μg/mL of soluble Leishmania antigen (SLA). Supernatants from
these cultures were harvested and ELISA experiments performed to investigate IFNg
and IL-4 production by the T cells. Following infection, a group of mice were treated
with an anti-IL-10 immunomodulatory agent prior to isolation and culture of T cells.
For comparison, two groups of control mice were used: one group was uninfected
and untreated (no immunomodulatory agent) and the other was uninfected but
treated with the anti-IL-10 agent. Details of the samples can be found below.
Following infection, L.major infected mice developed skin lesions and showed a high
worm burden at the site of infection. The anti-IL-10 treated mice showed reduced
symptoms and reduced worm burden. Both groups of control mice were healthy.