Study of differential gene expression in the thymus, spleen and lymphatic nodes of susceptible and resistant mice during T. cruzi infection

This is a time course study of differential gene expression in the thymus and spleen of susceptible (Balb/c) and resistant (C57BL/6) mice during experimental Trypanosoma cruzi infection. There is a special interest in the expression of galectins, glycosyltransferases, neuraminidases and chemokines in the gene expression patterns. Mice were infected with 1000 trypomastigotes of T. cruzi strain Y i.p. Organs (thymus and spleen) were removed aseptically at days 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28 post-infection. The time points have been selected as they allow the following of the acute phase of the disease with the peak of parasitemia (between 7 and 14 days), and the chronic phase (more than 21 days post infection). RNA from at least three animals from the same data point was pooled to normalize internal variability. Total RNA was isolated as per recommended protocol and shipped to the Core E site. Samples were hybridized to the GLYCOv3 array.