Reorganization of Extracellular Matrix in Placentas from Women with Asymptomatic Chagas Disease: Mechanism of Parasite Invasion or Local Placental Defense?

Figure 1

Detection of T. cruzi in mother, newborn, and placenta by PCR: A 330-base pair fragment of the T. cruzi satellite DNA was amplified as described in Material and Methods. MW: molecular marker, lane 1: Negative control without DNA; lane 2: DNA from T. cruzi epimastigotes; lane 3: noninfected human blood DNA; lane 4 non-infected human placenta DNA; lanes 5–7: parasite DNA detected in peripheral blood (lane 5), in placenta (lane 6), and respective umbilical chord from neonate (lane 7) of mother 1; lanes 8–10: parasite DNA detected in peripheral blood (lane 8), in placenta (lane 9), and respective umbilical cord from neonate (lane 10) of mother 2; lanes 11–13: parasite DNA detected in peripheral blood (lane 11), in placenta (lane 12) and respective umbilical chord from neonate (lane 13) of mother 3. Note that in mother 3 parasite DNA can only be detected in the placenta. The PCR product was subjected to electrophoresis in 1.6% agarose gels and stained with ethidium bromide. PCR markers from Promega were employed as molecular weight standards.