Figure 5.

Cytokine expression in the duodenum from malnourished BALB/c mice infected with L. infantum. il-12, ifnγ, tnfα, tgfβ and il-17 mRNA expression levels measured by qPCR in the duodenum of each experimental group. The values are expressed as normalized ratios between the target gene expression and the geometric median of the ATP-5, GAPDH and CYC-1 genes. Statistical differences due to (a) diet (p < 0.001) were determined by two-way ANOVA. CP: animals fed 14% protein diet; LP: animals fed 4% protein diet, CPi: animals fed 14% protein diet and infected; LPi: animals fed 4% protein diet and infected.