FIG. 3.

Splenic parasite burden in BALB/c mice immunized s.c. three times in 3-week intervals with Lip-rLmSTI1-CpG ODN, Lip-rLmSTI1, rLmSTI1 plus CpG ODN in PBS, rLmSTI1 plus non-CpG ODN in PBS, empty liposomes, or PBS after challenge with L. major promastigotes. A limiting dilution analysis was performed 14 weeks after challenge on cells isolated from the spleens of individual mice (n = 4) and cultured in triplicate for 10 days at 25°C in serial eightfold dilutions. The number of viable parasites per spleen was determined by ELIDA software, based on the limiting dilution assay method. Each bar represents the average score plus the standard error of the mean.