FIG 2.

Viability of host cells and Leishmania exposed to disulfiram in the spleen and lymph node explant culture system. The percent viability of L. major or L. donovani and lymph node and spleen cells was determined in the ex vivo system upon exposure to disulfiram. At 21 days postinfection, lymph node explants from mice infected with L. major or spleen explants from hamsters infected with L. donovani were harvested and then cultured for 48 h. Parasite viability was determined by luminometry, and lymph node or spleen cell viability was assessed by microscopy using trypan blue exclusion. The percentage of parasite survival compared to controls was calculated as follows: (parasite counts in treated cells/parasite counts in untreated cells) × 100. The percentage of viable cells was calculated as follows: (total number of viable cells per ml of aliquot/total number of cells per ml of aliquot) × 100. The results are shown as the mean percentages ± the standard deviations of the mean from a representative experiment.