Within compound screening assay this inflammatory area, a minimum of six images (fields) were collected. Image analysis and processing were performed with LSMix (Zeiss) or LaserSharp, Confocal Assistant, Adobe Photoshop (Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, CA, USA) and Image Tool software (UTHSCSA, San Antonio, TX, USA). Analyses were performed by counting the total number of cells in six to nine fields acquired and calculating the average cell number per field for each patient. This procedure was performed for each parameter analysed, allowing determination

of the total number of inflammatory cells (total number of DAPI+ cells within the inflammatory infiltrate), the number of FITC (TCR Vβ regions) or PE-Cy5 (CD4+) single-positive cells, and the number of double-positive cells. The counts were performed blindly for each parameter for each patient. The results are representative this website of two experiments per patient. Statistical analysis was performed as indicated in each figure legend. For comparison of means between control versus CL, individual Student’s t-tests were used for each given Vβ-expressing population. For comparison of specific

Vβ-expressing CD4+ T cell populations between media alone and SLA, paired Student’s t-tests were used. For comparison of the percentage of cells within each Vβ population expressing a given marker (CD45RO, cytokines, etc.), the data were treated with the Tukey–Kramer analysis of variance (anova) test within the jmp statistical package (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). All correlation analyses were performed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient contained within the jmp statistical package (SAS Institute Inc.) and reported with its associated r2 and P-value. The clinical characteristics of the 12 patients with CL used in this study are shown in Table 1. All patients were from an endemic area near Salvador, Brazil (see Materials and methods) and participated in the study after informed consent through the donation

of peripheral blood. Regardless of participation in the study, all patients received medical care. The patient ages ranged between 14 and 50 years (mean 25·08 ± 11·15) and time of lesion, as reported by the patient, ranged from 8 to 120 days at time the blood was taken and measurements were made. The total area measured of ulcers varied from 12 to 4-Aminobutyrate aminotransferase 272 mm2 (mean 151·44 ± 103·87). All patients presented with positive Leishmania skin tests (MST), while measurements existed for 11 patients, ranging from 72 to 910 mm2 (mean 329·72 mm2 ± 229·66). We performed a comparative analysis of the frequency of T cells expressing given Vβ regions 2, 5·1, 5·2, 8, 11, 12, 17 and 24 from CL and from non-infected individuals. The mean frequency of cells expressing Vβ 5·2 and 24 was increased slightly in the actively infected CL group compared to the non-infected control group (P = 0·006 and P = 0·02, respectively) (Fig. 2).