Figure 1.

Parasitemia development. Male BALB/c mice were infected with 5 × 10⁴ insect-derived metacyclic forms of T. cruzi within the oral cavity. Parasitemia (mean and SEM) was assessed during the acute phase and is expressed as parasites per milliliter. Parasites were counted by light microscopy and parasitemia calculated by the Pizzi-Brener method. n: 7 dpi = 21, 10, and 14 dpi = 15, 18 dpi = 18, 21 dpi = 11, 23 dpi = 6, 28 dpi = 8; 36, 40, 42, 46, 48, and 53 = 4. The total number of animals in each time point was obtained from different experiments.