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. 2018 May 22;7:e36491. doi: 10.7554/eLife.36491

Figure 2. T. gondii and H. hammondi spontaneously form tissue cysts in vitro, but do so with different dynamics.

Figure 2.

(A) Representative images of cells infected with T. gondii (TgVEG) and H. hammondi (HhCatEth1) sporozoites that were fixed and stained with DBA after 4 and 15 DPI. Scale bar represents 5 µm. (B) Quantification of T. gondii and H. hammondi infection described in A demonstrating that after 4 days, neither H. hammondi or T. gondii spontaneously form tissue cysts, but both parasite species form tissue cysts after 15 DPI. However, the percentage of H. hammondi tissue cysts is significantly increased after 15 DPI when compared to T. gondii. Statistical significance was determined using a 2-way ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparison test. (****=P < 0.0001). (C and D) Average percentage of DBA positive vacuoles in 15 FOV over a course of a 23 day infection with T. gondii (TgVEG) and H. hammondi (HhCatAmer). Arrows in (C) indicate when T. gondii was passed onto new host cells to prevent complete lysis. (D) H. hammondi form tissue cysts after 12 DPI. The percentage of DBA positive vacuoles increases until all vacuoles are DBA positive at 23 DPI. (C) T. gondii forms tissue cysts at 8 DPI, however, the percentage of DBA positive vacuoles does not reach 100% during the 23 day infection.