Fig. 3

Physiological state and invasion ability of Cryptosporidium parvum sporozoites collected from the TIM-1 system. (A) Luciferase activity expressed by C. parvum sporozoites collected from the duodenal (Duo), jejunal (Jej) or ileal (Ile) TIM-1 compartments during child (purple) or adult (dark blue) digestion. Boxplots depict the relative luminescence of sporozoites compared with that of the inoculum for each digestion assay. For each age condition, significant differences (P < 0.05) between time points are indicated by non-corresponding letters (purple lowercase for child digestion and blue capitals for adult digestion). For each time point, significant differences between age conditions are indicated in black as follows: **** P < 0.0001. (B) Invasion assay. C. parvum sporozoites were allowed to infect HCT-8 monolayers for 2.5 h before evaluation of luminescence intensity. Boxplots depict the luminescence measured in infected cells from which the luciferase background measured in non-infected cells has been removed. For each age condition, significant differences (P < 0.01 or P < 0.001 for child or adult, respectively) between time points are indicated by non-corresponding letters (purple lowercase for child digestion and blue capitals for adult digestion). For each time point, significant differences between age conditions are indicated in black as follows: ** P < 0. 01