Parasite persistence and expansion at the dermal site of infection.

(A) Experimental setup using natural infection with two differentially labeled parasite strains (AnTat1.1E^dsRed or AnTat1.1E^TagGFP2) to determine the origin of the parasites expanding at the dermal inoculation site. Mice were exposed to the bites of infected tsetse flies to introduce AnTat1.1E^dsRed parasites in the left ear and AnTat1.1E^TagGFP2 at the abdominal side. (B) Flow cytometry profiles at 5 and 7 dpi illustrating the presence of the two parasite strains in the peripheral blood and localized expansion of only the dsRed strain in the ear dermis exposed to the infected tsetse fly bite. Shown data are the CD45^- events within the trypanosome gate. Parasite concentrations in the blood and total number of parasites in the tissue extracts are indicated. This experiment was with two mice and one control mouse for each time point with a total of six mice.