Figure 4. B₂R^−/−-Infected Mice Present Lower Frequencies of IFN-γ-Producing Intracardiac CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T Cells at the Early Stage (14 d p.i.) of Infection.

Assessment of IFN-γ production by heart-derived CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells isolated (14 d p.i.) from B₂R^+/+ and B₂R^−/− mice. Cells were co-cultured with CD11c⁺ DCs loaded with T. cruzi Ag (25 μg/ml) for 72 h at 37 °C. Culture supernatants were harvested and assayed for IFN-γ by ELISA. 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 (*, p < 0.05) .