Figure 2.

Second-line defence and degradation of antibodies. Immunofluorescence images showing degradation of anti-variant surface glycoproteins (VSG) immunoglobulin G (IgG) by bloodstream-form Trypanosoma brucei and the inhibition of this process by selective protease inhibitors. The internalised red dots correspond to IgG localised within the endomembrane system, whereas blue structures are the nucleus and kinetoplast (large and small, respectively). In the examples shown, the cysteine protease inhibitors K11777 and MG-132 are used to prevent the degradation of antibody so that the signal persists at the end of the time course. Scale bar = 2 um.