Experimental design for in vivo experiments.

This scheme depicts schematically the studies conducted with S. mansoni-infected mice (n = 8) in this present work. Mice were treated daily (oral administration) with PZQ, EDLF or PZQ+EDLF since three days before animals were infected until eight days after infection. The untreated infected control group received only the vehicle solution used for 12 days. Animals that were untreated and uninfected (naive) were also run in parallel. Asterisks indicate when samples from animals were taken (sampling) to analyze the parameters indicated in the box. Animals were sacrificed at 8 weeks p.i., and the timeline of some major events in parasite life cycle and disease-related processes are indicated at the top of the scheme. See text for further details.