FIG 1.

Phagocytic activity increases following blood feeding and 20E injection. (A and B) Phagocytosis assays were performed in adult female An. gambiae mosquitoes under naive, blood-fed, or P. berghei-infected conditions approximately 24 h postfeeding. Perfused hemocytes from each condition were evaluated by the percentage of phagocytic cells (A) and the phagocytic index (number of beads per cell) (B). (C and D) Similar experiments were performed following 20E priming, where the influence of 20E was evaluated by the percentage of phagocytic cells (C) and the phagocytic index (D). Three or more independent experiments were performed for each treatment. Data were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis with a Dunn’s posttest (A and B) or a Mann-Whitney test (C and D) using GraphPad Prism 6.0. n, number of mosquitoes examined for each condition. Asterisks denote significance: *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001). ns, not significant.