Figure 1. B₂R^−/− Mice Are Susceptible to T. cruzi Infection by the Intraperitoneal Route.

(A) Temporal course of infection with the Dm28c T. cruzi strain in B₂R^+/+ and B₂R^−/− mice. Parasitemia and survival curves of mice groups intraperitoneally infected with 1 × 10⁶ TCT of the Dm28c strain of T. cruzi. Parasitemia was evaluated with 5 μl of each infected mouse's blood in an optical microscope. Mortality was recorded daily. The data are representative of two independent experiments (n = 5 mice/group). Statistics were done by ANOVA and pair-wise comparisons were done by the Tukey test (a*, p < 0.05; b* p < 0.01).

(B) Quantification of T. cruzi Dm28c in heart and spleen from infected animals as described above. qPCR was performed as described in Materials and Methods in 100 ng of total DNA at 14 d p.i. Bars represent an average of four to five animals per group ± SD. p < 0.05 between tissue parasitism in heart from wild-type and B₂R^−/−-infected animals as determined by Student t Test.