Lipid Bodies: Inflammatory Organelles Implicated in Host-Trypanosoma cruzi Interplay during Innate Immune Responses
Figure 2
Morphological aspects of the heart from noninfected and infected rats at 12 days of infection with Trypanosoma cruzi. (a) Histological view of the myocardium from an uninfected rat. In (b), nests of amastigotes (arrows), the intracellular form of the parasite, and inflammatory processes (circles) characterized by predominance of mononuclear cells are observed in the myocardium (My). Semi-serial 5 μm-thick sections of the heart were cut, stained by haematoxylin and eosin and examined for qualitative evaluation of the inflammatory and degenerative processes and quantification of parasitism [8, 34]. In (c), an electron micrograph of a parasitized cardiomyocyte (c) showing vacuoles (V) and many amastigotes (A). Data are representative of three independent experiments. Four to six rats per group. Panel (a) was reprinted from [9] with permission. Scale bar, 15 μm (a, b); 1 μm (c).
