abstract
- Irrespective of the tissue infected or the strain involved, all Leishmania species selectively parasitize and replicate within the resident tissue macrophage. Henry Murray here discusses the role of a second mononuclear phagocyte, the blood monocyte, which is also attracted to leishmanial lesions, but which appears to play quite different roles in experimental visceral versus cutaneous infection: in visceral disease, the monocyte is a critical host defense effector cell, in cutaneous disease, it may, paradoxically, serve to perpetuate intracellular infection.