Table 1

Egressed parasites displayed normal growth, infectivity and virulence. HFFs were infected with egressed tachyzoites (TNF-α-induced egress) or naturally egressed T. gondii. Twenty-four hours later, ten fields were randomly selected and the number of PV containing different tachyzoites was counted using an Olympus IX51 microscope. This experiment was repeated three times with similar results. C57BL/6 mice were infected intra-peritoneally with 10³ tachyzoites and the survival rate was evaluated every day. Bars represent means ± SDs of five replicates. This experiment was repeated three times with similar results.