T. cruzi covers its whole surface with as many as 2 × 106 mucin molecules (79, 80); the abundance of this molecule may be important for stimulating dendritic cells in a TLR2-dependent manner during the initial steps of infection, leading to an immunoregulatory effect in vivo, and may contribute to the delayed immune response and antibody production against the parasite (78, 82). Here, MUC5AC is linked to infection.