Fig. 1.

Neutral lipid distribution in Leishmania amazonensis promastigotes cultivated in different lopinavir concentrations and incubated with BODIPY. (A) Promastigotes were grown in 7.5, 15 and 30 µm of lopinavir (½IC₅₀, IC₅₀ and 2 × IC₅₀, respectively) for 72 h and incubated with BODIPY and DAPI. Cells were analysed under differential interferential contrast (DIC) and fluorescence in a Zeiss epifluorescence microscope. In the images, the kinetoplast (k) and nucleus (n) are indicated. (B) Fluorimetric analysis using BODIPY revealed that promastigotes incubated with 2 × IC₅₀ stored more neutral lipids than those grown in lower concentrations of this inhibitor. Fluorescence intensity was expressed in arbitrary units (AU). The experiments were performed three times in triplicate and data are shown as bar graphs ± standard error of the mean. *P <  0.01, **P < 0.05.