To clearly determine how the different states of macrophage activation relate to one another under otherwise identical culture conditions, we compared the transcriptional response of bone marrow-derived macrophages to infection by the kinetoplastid intracellular parasites Leishmania mexicana and Trypanosoma cruzi, stimulation by the bacterial PAMP lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and stimulation by the cytokines IFNG, TNF, IFNB, IL-4, IL-10, and IL-17. Here, IL4 is linked to infection.