Intracellular zinc depletion decreased interaction between L. donovani and host macrophages.

THP-1 derived macrophages were infected with treated or untreated control parasites for indicated time period and intracellular amastigotes were visualized by giemsa staining followed by optical microscopy at 100x (A). The parasite load in infected macrophages was measured by counting the numbers of intracellular amastigotes per 100 macrophages (B). Rate of infection was determined by counting the number of infected macrophages per 100 macrophages (C). Association index was determined by multiplying mean number of amastigotes with percent infected macrophages (D). The data represents Mean±S.D of three independent experiments in duplicates. * P< 0.05, **P< 0.001, ns Not significant; as compared in zinc depleted and zinc supplemented parasites with untreated control parasites by Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparison test. Arrow indicates intracellular amastigotes in macrophage.