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). Here, CCR2 is linked to infection.