Surgical and intravital microscopy protocol to image Trypanosoma brucei–host interactions in live rodent models

© 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ; Intravital microscopy (IVM) involves surgical procedures to expose the internal organs of live anesthetized animals to visualize fluorescently labeled components in situ, in vivo at subcellular resolution. Here, we provide an IVM protocol for time-lapse imaging of dynamic Trypanosoma brucei-host interactions in ten mammalian organs and in systemic circulation. We describe intraperitoneal or intradermal injection of mice with T.brucei. We then detail surgical procedures to prepare ten organs for IVM, followed by imaging of host-T. brucei interactions. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to De Niz et al. (2021). ; This work was supported by LT000047/2019-L (HFSP) and ALTF 1048-2016 (EMBO) to M.D.N. L.M.F. is an investigator CEEC of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (CEECIND/03322/2018), and the laboratory is funded by ERC (FatTryp, ref. 771714). ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion