Fig. 2.

Chronic O. viverrini infection and associated hepatobiliary disease is associated with iron loaded M2-like macrophages in hamsters. (A) Histochemical analysis of representative samples showed elevated levels of iron loaded M2-like macrophages (Prussian blue positive, "Giant cell" macrophage morphology) in chronic O. viverrini infected hamster livers (n=3 Mock; n=6 chronic O. viverrini) and co-localization to fibrotic regions (black arrows denote same location of tissue). (B) Macrophages/monocytes in chronic O. viverrini-infected hamsters (n=6) exhibit reduced expression of the M1 gene iNOS (mormalized iNOS gene expression, iNOS/GAPDH) in the blood and liver compared to mock (n=3), thus suggesting chronic O. viverrini infection induces M2-like macrophage phenotype.