Figure 7.

l-Arginine deprivation impairs parasite growth in activated MΦ. Mature BMMΦ were differentiated into CAMΦ or AAMΦ in the presence (400 μM) or in the absence (0 μM) of l-arginine. After 18 h, MΦ were infected with L. major parasites. (A) After 4 h of infection, the capacity of activated MΦ to phagocytose L. major promastigotes was determined. The parasite growth in activated MΦ was measured after 2 days (B) and the arginase activity in AAMΦ (C, left panel) and NO production (C, right panel) were determined as described in the Materials and methods. (D) Expression of activation markers as assessed by flow cytometry. (E) Production of IL-6 by CAMΦ or AAMΦ. Data show mean±SD of four individual wells/group. ^*p<0.05 as determined by a two-tailed Mann–Whitney test. Data are representative of two independent experiments.