Monitoring the course of TcCOL-NLuc chronic infection in Swiss Webster mice by live bioluminescence imaging.

(A) Representative ventral view images of mouse #1 infected with TcCOL-NLuc tissue culture-derived trypomastigotes (5 x10³ parasites) taken at the indicated time points. NI: non-infected control mouse. Log ₁₀ heat-map scale represents bioluminescence intensity (blue: low; red: high). (B) Total abdominal bioluminescence (total flux) for seven individual mice and their mean (red line) measured in the regions of interest indicated in (A) and over the course of infection. The grey line indicates the detection threshold determined as the mean (solid line) and mean ± 2 s.d. (dashed lines) of background luminescence of the control uninfected mouse. (C) Blood parasitemia (trypomastigotes/ml) determined by microscopy over time for each individual mouse and mean (blue line). Grey line indicates the limit of detection (1.58 x10⁴ parasites/ml blood).