This paradigm was later challenged when new findings arose from a more natural model of infection, where 100 metacyclic promastigotes were inoculated intradermally in the ears of C57BL/6 mice. In this model, Cd8 −/− and CD8 + T cell-depleted mice fail to control L. major infection, and CD8 + T cells were thought to be necessary for supporting Th1 responses (Belkaid et al., 2002) .