Table 1. Comparative analysis of the percentage of activated T lymphocytes prior to and following Leishmania antigen stimulation in healed cutaneous leishmaniasis groups (hCL<2years: period since end of therapy lower than 2 years; hCL 2-5years: period since end of therapy from two to five years) and healthy subjects.

	hCL < 2 years				hCL 2-5 years				Health Subjects
T	Ex vivo	In vitro	Fold	P – value c	Ex vivo	In vitro	Fold	P – value c	Ex vivo	In vitro	Fold
lymphocyts	PBMC	Lb-Ag	increase b		PBMC	Lb-Ag	increase b		PBMC	Lb-Ag	increase b
		stimulated				stimulated				stimulated
%CD69+	6.3 a	20.5	8.9±2.9	<0.05	1.3	5.4	2.7±2.4	n.s.	1.1	1.4	1.5±1.1
in T CD4+	3.7 - 30.7	13.7 - 40.9			0.8 - 2.5	3.2 - 10.4			0.6 - 2.9	1.1 - 5.6
	n=7	n=7			n=8	n=6			n=8	n=7
%CD69+	5.9	30.2	8.1±6.3	<0.01	1.9	14.7	2.6±2.3	<0.05	2.5	2.9	1.5±1.4
in T CD8+	2.0 - 8.3	13.3 - 40.8			0.9 - 3.0	7.5 - 26.7			1.7 - 3.6	2.1 - 5.1
	n=7	n=7			n=8	n=7			n=8	n=7
%CD25+	9.4	40.9	3.6±1.7	<0.05	8.1	17.2	3.0±1.7	n.s.	9.5	10.2	1.4±0.7
in T CD4+	8.0 - 15.3	19.4 - 50.4			6.3 - 9.5	10.6 - 43.4			6.1 - 13.7	7.3 - 12.3
	n=10	n=11			n=13	n=10			n=12	n=10
%CD25+	2.9	19.5	10.0±6.9	<0.01	1.4	5.5	1.9±1.7	n.s.	1.2	1.6	2.6±1.8
in T CD8+	1.2 - 10.0	10.5 - 55.4			0.7 - 2.5	3.7 - 8.7			0.8 - 2.3	1.2 -8.5
	n=10	n=11			n=13	n=11			n=12	n=10

^aData expressed as median, 25th and 75th percentile and number of subjects evaluated.

^bFold increase between in vitro Ag-Lb stimulated and non-stimulated cells. Values indicate the mean ± standard deviation.

^cStatistical significance of the difference in the percentage of activation of in vitro Leishmania braziliensis antigens (Lb-Ag) stimulated cells between the hCL groups (hCL<2years or hCL 2-5years) and healthy controls (HS), as determined by Kruskal-Wallis with post-test Dunns to compare selected pars of columns.

n.s. - not significant.