we have tried some time ago using L. amazonensis-GFP, but were unsucessful due to high background staining in mouse hair, but are trying to circumvent this

There are several nice papers on the subject. For leishmananiasis experimental model, please look at Steve Beverley's publications using luciferase-expressing parasites. For Chagas disease model, refer to David Engman's and Rick Tarleton's papers.

Hi Yael,

What kind of device do you have to make the image? Is it an optical device (bioluminescence or fluorescence)? There are different bioluminescent and fluorescent proteins in which you can use to make a transgenic parasite.

Paul Kaye is doing intra-vital imaging on leishmania with a 2-photon microscope he's the only one I've seen using it yet for leish/chagas. He has used for the visceral disease on excised tissue I think, but this would be particularly good for drug studies on dermal leishmaniasis models as it could potentially be used non-invasively but should give high quality imaging of host cells and parasites in skin lesions. Limiting factor is obviously the cost of the mulit-photon microscope.

http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000805

See also, for example, http://cvi.asm.org/content/15/12/1764.short. Either fluorescent (near-IR) and luminescent transgenic parasites can be used with PerkinElmer's (formerly Caliper) IVIS. Alfalfa-free food may be necessary, too, to reduce background fluorescence. Luminescence is know to penetrate from deeper tissue than fluorescence.