<i>In vivo</i> behavior of DCs within the liver before and after infection with iRBCs.

<p>CD11c-YFP mice were intraperitoneally infected or not with Pc-iRBCs. All animals were divided into three groups: (A and B) Control (non-infected); (C) infected, on day 7 of infection (INF d7); or infected, on day 21 of infection (INF d21). Each square area represents 20×20 µm. To allow for the observation of blood vessels, Rhodamine B-Dextran was injected just after image acquisition in Control mice. In (B), snapshots at different time-points reveal the dendrite behavior of some DCs within the Control liver. In (C), at left, the 3D distribution of DCs and iRBCs inside the infected livers; at right, a 3D model of these distributions in which DC models are represented in transparent-green to allow observation of red-iRBCs within them. Green arrows show DCs that had internalized iRBCs. Red arrows show iRBCs in close contact with DCs. These results are representative of 3 repetitions.