Figure 3

Impaired splenic immune response in MyD88 ^−/− mice infected with T. gondii. (A) Splenomegaly in MyD88^−/− but not in MyD88^+/+ mice, infected with 80 cysts of the 76 K T. gondii strain 13 days postinfection. (B) Expression of chemokine mRNA in the spleens of MyD88^+/+ (open bars) and MyD88^−/− (solid bars) BALB/c mice 13 days postinfection, evaluated by qRT-PCR. Results are presented as the fold increase expression of mRNA in infected mice versus expression of mRNA in non-infected mice. The results are representative of two independent experiments with 7 mice per group. (C) cytokine and NO production by Toxoplasma extract stimulated spleen cells from MyD88^−/− and MyD88^+/+ BALB/c mice 13 days postinfection. Supernatants were collected between 24 and 96 hours to determine cytokines levels (IL-10 at 72 hours, IL-2 at 48 hours, IFN-γ at 96 hours, IL-12 p40 at 48 hours and NO at 24 hours) in MyD88^+/+ (open bars) and MyD88^−/− (solid bars) mice. These results are representative of two independent experiments. The total number of tested animals in each group is n = 7. Data analyzed using a Mann–Whitney test * (P <0.05). qRT-PCR, real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction.