Figure 8.

Plasma cells are absent in the bone marrow of Trypanosoma cruzi-infected mice. Bone marrow cells were obtained from non-infected (day 0) or T. cruzi-infected mice (day 8 and 18) and incubated with anti-B220 and anti-CD138 and analysed by flow cytometry. Graphs show in (a) are representative plots of CD138 versus B220 with the percentages of CD138⁺ B220⁺ cells, and in (b) are the absolute number of B220⁺ CD138⁺cells on different days of infection. Diamonds represent the value obtained from each mouse. The lines represent the median value in each analysed group. The significant difference between normal (day 0) and infected mice is indicated by * (P< 0·05). Results are representative for two individual experiments.