Fig 4. Course of parasite dissemination in Trypanosoma cruzi oral infection.

Male BALB/c mice were infected in the oral cavity (OI) with 1x10⁶ trypomastigotes forms of T. cruzi expressing luciferase (Dm28c-luc). Representative in vivo bioluminescence images were acquired in the same mice (n = 6), at 7 and 21 dpi, after 15 min of D-luciferin IP administration (150 mg/kg), using IVIS Lumina image system (Xenogen) The scale bar for radiance (below) was correlated with the signal intensity, where red indicates higher signal and blue indicates a lower signal. Maximum and minimum signals are indicated at the right and left of the scale bar, respectively. White arrows indicate the presence of bioluminescence.