Infectivity of parasites stored 24 hours at RT in decaying blood product.

<p>One ml of heparinized (n = 5) or non-heparinized (n = 7) blood was spiked with 2×10⁶ Y or Tc23 <i>T. cruzi</i> trypomastigotes. Blood was cultured over FS9 or HMEC-1 cells and examined for amastigote nests after 4–7 days. Pictured is a representative amastigote nest of Y strain parasites in FS9 cells. Photos were taken at 400× magnification.