Time-course of <i>T. cruzi</i> infection in <i>Slamf1^−/−</i> mice and reduced <i>T. cruzi</i> infection in the hearts from <i>Slamf1−/−</i> animals.

<p>BALB/c or <i>Slamf1^−/−</i> mice were intraperitoneally infected with 2×10³ trypomastigotes of the <i>T. cruzi</i> Y strain and were sacrificed at different dpi. A) Survival. B) Serum CK levels. Analysis of <i>T. cruzi</i> presence in heart tissue from <i>T. cruzi</i> infected BALB/c or <i>Slamf1^−/−</i> animals: C) Quantification of <i>T. cruzi</i> DNA in the heart tissue of infected BALB/c- and <i>Slamf1^−/−</i> mice. <i>T. cruzi</i> DNA is expressed as the amount of parasite DNA obtained from a heart tissue sample (pg of parasite DNA/mg of heart tissue). Results are expressed as the mean values (±SD) for triplicates of pooled DNA from 5 different mice. A representative experiment of the 3 performed is shown. D) Histochemical analysis by Hematoxylin-Eosin stain. A representative field is shown. E) Quantification of the number of amastigote nests per 20 fields. F) Average number of amastigotes/nest per 20 fields. At least 20 fields were observed of each preparation (3 preparations/mouse and 3 mice per group). Results are expressed as the mean values (±SD) for 100 independent microscopic fields from 5 different mice (20 each). G) Blood parasitemia. (*) Statistically significant differences between <i>Slamf1^−/−</i> mice and BALB/c (p>0.05).