Figure 3.

Bleeding from the tail of BALB/c mice and ex vivo PT and aPTT measurements during oral infection. Male BALB/c mice were infected with 5 × 10⁴ insect-derived metacyclic forms of T. cruzi (Tulahuén strain) within oral cavity. (A) Bleeding was caused by a tail transection in NI, 7, 14, and 21 dpi OI mice. Absorbance at 540 nm (hemoglobin concentration) was used to estimate blood loss. (B) NI or OI plasma samples were obtained by cardiac puncture followed by addition of aPTT or PT reagent as described in the “Methods” section. Clotting time was estimated using a coagulometer. (A,B) Values represent the median with interquartile range for each group/day post-infection and are representative of two independent experiments. Results were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn's multiple comparisons test (*0.0001< p < 0.05, #p < 0.0001).