Figure 1.

Chronic T. gondii infection aggravates polymicrobial sepsis. Forty days after T. gondii infection, C57BL/6 mice were subjected to CLP for different analyses. The survival rate was evaluated until the 10th day post-CLP induction (A). These data are representative of three independent experiments (n = 10), and the statistical analysis was determined using the Mantel-Cox log-rank test. The bacterial load was analyzed in the blood (B) and peritoneal lavage (C) at 6, 12, or 24 h post-CLP induction. The results are expressed as the log of the colony-forming units (CFU) per microliter. The leukocytes from the peritoneum (D) were stained with May-Grünwald Giemsa, and the number of neutrophils (E) and lymphocytes (F) were determined using a cell counter. Data are presented as the means ± SEM for 4 animals per group in four independent experiments (ANOVA, followed by Tukey's test; ^*p < 0.05; ^**p < 0.01; ^***p < 0.001). At 24 h post-CLP, histopathological features of the ileum were analyzed after staining with haematoxylin and eosin (H&E). The results are representative of three independent experiments using 4 mice per group (G).