Iranian J Parasitol: Vol. 7, No.1, 2012, pp. 18-25 new finding showed that IL-27R is not required for the generation of IFN-γ mediated immunity to intracellular pathogens such as Toxoplasma infection (32). Almost all studies indicated that IL-12, plays a major role in resistance against toxoplasmosis but in the absence of IL-12, IL- 23 can provide a limited mechanism of re- sistance to this infection (33). On the other hand, it is shown that IL-23 plays a key role in Heli- cobacter hepaticus–induced T cell–dependent colitis (34). It is also reported that Th1 develop- ment induced by Gram negative bacteria- primed macrophages is likely to be mediated by the joint action of different IL-12 family mem- bers and Th1 polarization might be driven by the action of the novel IL-12 family members IL-27 and/or IL-23 (35). Taken together, seems that IL-23 and IL-27 may play a possible and complementary role with Th1 cytokines in human protection against Leishmania infection. Further studies are required to establish the role of these cy- tokines as surrogate markers in healing pro- cess of cutaneous leishmaniasis. Acknowledgements The main part of this work was supplied by Is- fahan University of Medical Sciences (Grant No. 188051). We wish to thanks Miss Maryam Peymani and Miss Leila Shirani for their kindly collaborations and excellent helps. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests. References 1. Dowlati Y. Cutaneous leishmaniasis: clinical aspect. Clin Dermatol. 1996 ;14 (5):425-31. 2. Herwaldt BL. Leishmaniasis. Lancet. 1999 2;354(9185):1191-9. 3. Salman SM, Rubeiz NG, Kibbi AG. Cuta- neous leishmaniasis: clinical features and di- agnosis. Clin Dermatol. 1999: 17(3):291-6. 4. Lohoff M, Gessner A, Bogdan C, Rollinghoff M. Experimental murine leishmaniasis and the Th1/Th2 cell concept. Tokai J Exp Clin Med. 1998;23(6):347-50. 24 5. Milon G, Del Giudice G, Louis JA. Immu- nobiology of experimental cutaneous lei- shmaniasis. Parasitol Today. 1995; 11(7):244- 7. 6. Muller I, Fruth U, Louis JA. Immunobiology of experimental leishmaniasis. Med Microbiol Immunol. 1992;181(1):1-12. 7. Sacks D, Noben-Trauth N. The immunology of susceptibility and resistance to Leishmania major in mice. Nat Rev Immunol. 2002; 2(11):845-58. 8. Ajdary S, Alimohammadian MH, Eslami MB, Kemp K, Kharazmi A. Comparison of the immune profile of nonhealing cutaneous leishmaniasis patients with those with active lesions and those who have recovered from infection. Infect Immun. 2000;68 (4):1760-4. 9. Ajdary S, Jafari-Shakib R, Riazi-Rad F, Khamesipour A. Soluble CD26 and CD30 levels in patients with anthroponotic cutane- ous leishmaniasis. J Infect. 2007;55(1):75-8. 10. Habibi GR, Khamesipour A, McMaster WR, Mahboudi F. Cytokine gene expression in healing and non-healing cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in response to in vitro stimula- tion with recombinant gp63 using semi- quantitative RT-PCR. Scand J Immunol. 2001;54(4):414-20. 11. Mahmoodi M, Rajabalian S, Fekri A, Es- fandiarpour I. Evaluation of in vitro pro- duction of ifn-gamma, il-10, il-12 and il-13 by blood cells in patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis lesions. Iran J Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2005;4(1):15-21. 12. Jafari-Shakib R, Shokrgozar MA, Nassiri- Kashani M et al. Plasma sCD26 and sCD30 levels in cutaneous leishmaniasis. Acta Trop. 2009;109(1):61-3. 13. Bogdan C, Gessner A, Rollinghoff M. Cy- tokines in leishmaniasis: a complex network of stimulatory and inhibitory interactions. Immunobiology. 1993;189(3-4):356-96. 14. Cutler A, Brombacher F. Cytokine therapy. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2005 Nov;1056:16-29. 15. Calandra T, Bochud PY, Heumann D. Cy- tokines in septic shock. Curr Clin Top Infect Dis. 2002;22:1-23. 16. Santamaria P. Cytokines and chemokines in autoimmune disease: an overview. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2003;520:1-7. Available at: http://ijpa.tums.ac.ir