Fig 2. Effect of anti-IFN-γ + anti-TNF-α antibody on number of viable amastigotes.

Splenic biopsies were treated with monoclonal neutralising antibodies in a 72hr culture. Following three days of incubation number of viable parasite was determined using titration culture. Results obtained were presented on vertical scatter dot plot (A) Splenic cultures (n = 27) were plated after treatment with neutralising antibodies against human IFN-γ and TNF-α (solid grey circles) or with their isotype controls (open circles). (B) Apart of splenic biopsy (n = 18) was also treated with anti-IL-10 monoclonal antibody (solid grey circles) and its isotype control IgG_2B (open circles), as a benchmark for this neutralising assays in splenic cells. Number of viable amastigotes in cultures is presented on log scale and in scientific format. Antibody treated samples were compared with their corresponding isotype control treated cultures using Wilcoxon matched pair test. Statistical significances are shown with a P value **P<0.01.