Trypomastigotes of T. cruzi induce IL-17 production by mouse splenocytes in vitro.

Leukocytes from BALB/c mice (5×10⁶ cells/ml) were cultured with or without trypomastigotes (2.5×10⁷/ml) of T. cruzi for 48 hours and the intracellular expression of IL-17 determined in total splenocytes (A), CD4⁺, CD8⁺, and NK cells (B) (mean ± SEM of cultures in triplicate, 3 animals/group). In A, the empty histograms represent IL-17⁺ cells harvest from cultures in the presence (black line) or absence of parasites (gray line) and the full histogram represents an IgG FITC control. The data are representative of two independent experiments. * P<0.05 compared to uninfected mice.