Course of infection in a murine model monitored by bioluminescence imaging.

<p><b>A</b> Female BALB/c mice were infected with 2 x 10⁵ culture-derived bloodstream trypomastigotes modified to express a red-shifted luciferase gene (Methods, [<a href="http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003707#pntd.0003707.ref019" target="_blank">19</a>]). Mice were imaged at the time points shown using an IVIS Illumina II system (Caliper Life Sciences). Images were analysed using the same signal intensity scale for radiance (right) where purple indicates low signal intensity and red indicates a high signal. The maximum (5x10⁷) and minimum (6.5 x10³) signals are indicated at the top and bottom of the scale bar respectively. Three representative mice are shown from each group of animals (<i>n</i> = 6 per group). DPI: days post infection, time 0 represents image taken one hour after infection. <b>B</b> Graph showing the mean total body flux measured in each group of animals throughout the experiment. The grey line indicates the wild type infection, blue is TcΔAPx1 and red is TcΔAPx2. Data are plotted as mean values, error bars indicate standard deviation. The black lines indicate the mean (solid line), and mean +2SD (dotted line) of background luminescence of control uninfected mice. All data were acquired and analysed using Living Image software (Caliper Life Sciences).