The levels of protection found in vaccine studies of murine visceral leishmaniasis are significantly lower than for cutaneous leishmaniasis; whether this is due to the high-challenge murine model employed and/or is a consequence of differences required in tissue-specific local immune responses is not understood. Consequently, an intradermal murine model of visceral leishmaniasis has been explor...

From 1977 (index case) to 2006, 87 cases of visceral leishmaniasis were confirmed in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in periurban areas on the continental and coastal slopes of the Pedra Branca massif and the continental slopes of the Gericinó massif. The majority (65.5%) of the patients were more than five years old, predominantly males (61.5%), but without any difference between t...

On the basis of partial amplification of a cloned fragment of kDNA of Leishmania infantum which is specific for this species, we developed a PCR-ELISA technique which avoids the problems associated with classical diagnostic techniques. This technique was tested on 33 L. infantum strains from 19 different zymodemes, which were recognized equally. It was also used on human and canine clinical sam...

In this work, we investigated the association between the disruption of splenic lymphoid tissue and the severity of visceral leishmaniasis in dogs. Clinical and laboratory data from 206 dogs were reviewed. Spleen sections collected during the euthanasia of these animals were analyzed, and the splenic lymphoid tissue samples were classified as well organized (spleen type 1), slightly disorganize...

The aim of this study was to investigate the serum lipid profile in naturally infected symptomatic dogs with visceral leishmaniasis (VL). A total of 20 owned dogs, comprising 10 healthy controls and 10 infected dogs with L. infantum were enrolled in this study. The clinical history and physical examination were performed in all dogs. Infected dogs showed one or more signs of canine leishmaniasi...

Clinically infected dogs have been identified as the main reservoir hosts of visceral leishmaniasis (VL)caused by Leishmania infantum. Recently asymptomatic infected dogs were regarded to be as important asclinically ill dogs. This study was aimed to determine the seroprevalence of L. infantum infection amongasymptomatic dogs in the southwest and central parts of Iran and to investigate possibl...