Rhythms in inflammatory cytokines follow rhythms in parasite development.

<p>Mean ± SEM (N = 4 per time point) for cytokines (A) IFN-gamma and (B) TNF-alpha for parasites matched and mismatched to the SCN rhythms of the host (matched: green, mismatched: orange). Sampling occurred every 3 hours on days 4–5 post infection. Matched parasites undergo schizogony around ZT 17, (indicated by green dashed line) and mismatched parasites undergo schizogony 6 hours later, around ZT 23 (indicated by orange dashed line). IFN-gamma peaks at ZT 21.29 in matched infections (green) and at ZT 0 in mismatched infections (orange). TNF-alpha peaks at ZT 19.26 in matched infections (green) and at ZT 1.29 in mismatched infections (orange). Light and dark bars indicate lights on and lights off (lights on: ZT 0, lights off: ZT 12).