Figure 1: Dietary restriction modulates susceptibility to ECM.

Representative experiments to examine the dose–response to DR (a–e) and the kinetics of onset of DR benefits (f–j). Eight mice per group in two cages were food-restricted by 10–50% as indicated (DR 10–50%) relative to AL-fed controls for 7 days (a–d, DR D-7) or 40% restricted from the indicated day (f–i, 40% DR). All mice were infected on day 0 (black arrowhead) and monitored until day 10–12 after infection; orange arrowheads indicate onset of food restriction. (a,f) Food intake. Average daily food consumption of the indicated group expressed as grams of food eaten per total weight of animals in that cage. (b,g) Weight. Body weight was measured daily starting 7 days before the infection and expressed as a percentage of starting weight. (c,h) Peripheral parasitemia. The percentage of infected RBCs in circulation was assessed by flow cytometry on the indicated day after infection. (d,i) Survival. Kaplan–Meier curves indicative of survival of infected mice exposed to different levels of DR. (e,j) Cumulative survival. Percentage of survival 12 days after infection. Data from two to four independent experiments per group were pooled, with n indicating total number of mice in each group. Asterisks represent significance of the corresponding Kaplan–Meier survival curves by log-rank test relative to the AL group; *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001. Values are the means and error bars represent s.e.m.