ROS in lower concentrations promote parasite increase in macrophages and mice.

<p><b>(A)</b> Inflammatory macrophages obtained from Phox KO and C57BL/6 WT mice were infected with <i>T</i>. <i>cruzi</i> previously treated with different concentrations of H₂O₂ for 30 minutes. After 2 hours of infection, cells were washed to remove extracellular parasites and re-incubated with medium for 72 hours. The slides were stained and counted to determine the infection index. A minimum of 200 macrophages were counted per group in triplicate. Data shown are representative one of three independent experiments performed in triplicate. All data are presents as the means ± standard deviation. * indicates significant differences between marked bars or points, p<0.05, two-way ANOVA test with Bonferroni post-test. <b>(B)</b> C57BL/6 WT mice were infected with 1x10⁵ bloodstream parasites of Y strain treated or not with H₂O₂ for 30 minutes before infection. Parasitemia levels were evaluated (n = 5). Results are representative of three independent experiments, * indicates significant differences between points, p<0.05.