Fig 1. C57BL/6 mice infected with Toxoplasma become chronically cachexic.

A, Following per oral infection with 120 Me49-GFP-luciferase cysts (grey) or mock infection (black) mice were monitored for weight loss. Data average of 8 experiments. B, Mice were infected as described in (A) with 100 cysts (dashed line), 250 cysts (grey) or mock infected (black) weight was monitored at the indicated time points. C, Survival curves for mice represented in (B). N = 4–7 mice per group, data representative at least 3 experiments. D, Mice were harvested at 7 days post infection (dpi) (E) or 40 dpi to assess parasite load by bioluminescence assay. F, Sickness scores for animals infected per orally with 100 Me49gfp-luc cysts (grey circles, toxo) or mock infected with PBS (black circles, UI). Animals were scored on a scale of 1–5: hunched posture, ruffled fur, failure to move when picked up, eyes closed or discharged, loss of over 20% weight. Mice were monitored twice daily at peak sickness and euthanized immediately if all 5 behaviors were observed (red outline). N = 5 mice per group. G, Every 24 hours food was weighed to determine the amount eaten and normalized to the weight of animals in the cage. Data are average of 2 experiments, N = 5 mice per group each experiment. Significance relative to uninfected at the same time point. H, Brown adipose tissue (BAT), sub cutaneous white adipose tissue (scWAT) or visceral white adipose tissue (vWAT) was harvest at 10 dpi (black) or 5 wpi (grey) and weighed. I, Extensor digitorum longus (EDL), tibialis anterior (TA), gastrocnemius (GA) and quadriceps (QUAD) muscles were weighed at 10 dpi (black) or 5 wpi (grey) post infection. Data is average of 2 experiments, N = 5–10 mice per time point. J, Luminex cytokine array was performed on sera from uninfected mice (black), 7 dpi (grey) or 5 wpi (red) mice. N = 3–10 mice per group. * p≤0.01, ** p≤0.001, ***p≤0.001, SEM, student’s T-test.