ITGAX and infection: Employing a tamoxifen inducible CCR2-Cre lineage tracing strategy we found that maturation from a circulating CCR2+Ly6C+ phenotype to a CCR2-Ly6C-CD11c+ DC phenotype requires approximately 2 weeks, during which the majority of maturing monocytes provided a safe niche for parasite replication, despite the Th1 immune response, likely as a result of L.a.-infection induced manipulation of cell activation by enhancing IL4R, MR and PDL2 expression on infected versus uninfected monocytes from the same dermal site of infection (43).