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# Lifecycle of Leishmania - The sandflies inject the infective stage, metacyclic promastigotes, during blood meals. - Metacyclic promastigotes in the puncture wound are phagocytized by macrophages, and transform into amastigotes. - Amastigotes multiply in infected cells and affect different tissue...

# Lifecycle of Leishmania - The sandflies inject the infective stage, metacyclic promastigotes, during blood meals. - Metacyclic promastigotes in the puncture wound are phagocytized by macrophages, and transform into amastigotes. - Amastigotes multiply in infected cells and affect different tissues, depending in part on the host, and in part on which *Leishmania* species is involved. These differing tissue specificities cause the differing clinical manifestations of the various forms of leishmaniasis. - Sandflies become infected during blood meals on infected hosts when they ingest macrophages infected with amastigotes. - In the sandfly's midgut, the parasites differentiate into promastigotes, which multiply, differentiate into metacyclic promastigotes, and migrate to the proboscis.