Damage to Leishmania promastigotes visualised by SEM.

In scanning electron microscopy, untreated parasites retain their elongated and fusiform shape (A), whereas treatment with amphotericin B, known to act on plasma membranes, causes the promastigotes to round up and become smaller (B). This effect was also visible to varying degrees on promastigotes treated with many of the chemokines, here shown for CXCL9 (C), CCL20 (D), CCL27 (E) and CCL28 (F). Several of the chemokines caused aggregation when incubated with the parasites, here shown for CCL20 (D) and CCL28 (F), as was visible immediately after adding the chemokines when the incubation was made in 1.5 mL tubes (data not shown).