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. 2014 May 1;16(9):1285–1300. doi: 10.1111/cmi.12297

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Evaluation of T. cruzi infection in SCID mice by in vivo bioluminescence imaging.A and B. Evaluation of in vivo limit of parasite detection.
  1. Representative ventral images of SCID mice 1 h after i.p. injection with 1 × 100-1 × 105 blood trypomastigotes (BTs) of PpyRE9h luciferase-expressing T. cruzi. Pseudocolour heat-maps indicate intensity of bioluminescence from low (blue) to high (red). All images use the same log10 scale heat-map, minimum and maximum radiance values as indicated. Red circles indicate regions of interest (ROI) used for signal quantification.
  2. Quantification of abdominal bioluminescence for mice in the experiment illustrated in A.
  3. Abdominal bioluminescence for mice 1 h after i.p. injection with 0, 100 or 1000 BTs (means ± SD, circles indicate values for individual animals, n = 5 per group). P-values shown are for one-way anova comparisons between infected groups and the uninfected control group.
  4. Whole animal total ventral bioluminescence for SCID mice inoculated via i.p and i.v. routes (data are means ± SD, n = 3 per group).
  5. Example ventral view images of the same individual SCID mouse 7, 14, 18 and 19 days after i.p. injection with 1 × 103 BTs (upper panels) and comparison with an equivalent infected mouse treated with 100 mg kg−1 day−1 benznidazole (BZ) for 5 days starting at 14 dpi (lower panels). All images use the same log10 scale heat-map with minimum and maximum radiance values as indicated.
  6. Whole animal total ventral bioluminescence for mice in the experiment represented in E (data are means ± SD, n = 3 per group, one experiment). BZ, benznidazole treated; NT, not treated.
  7. Microscopy-based quantification of peripheral parasitaemia for animals in the experiment represented in E (means ± SD, n = 3 per group); limit of detection = 2 × 104 ml−1. #, NT below detection limit; ##, BZ below detection limit.B, D and F. Grey lines indicate detection thresholds determined as the mean (solid line) and mean +2SDs (dashed line) of background luminescence of control uninfected mice using abdominal (B) or whole animal (D, F) ROI.