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Infect Immun, May 1998, p. 2393-2398, Vol. 66, No. 5
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population
Biology, Ashworth Laboratories, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
EH9 3JT, United Kingdom
Received 12 November 1997/Returned for modification 17 December
1997/Accepted 2 March 1998
We have compared the in vitro responses of peripheral blood T cells
from malaria-unexposed donors to live Plasmodium falciparum schizonts, freeze-thawed schizont extracts (P. falciparum
schizont extracts [PfSE]), and parasite culture supernatants. We show
that the cells responding to PfSE and parasite culture supernatants are
predominantly CD4+ TCR
0019-9567/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

+ T Cells Preferentially Respond
to Live Rather than Killed Malaria Parasites

+ while in the
presence of live schizonts there is an additional activation of
TCR
+ cells. Activation of TCR
+
cells in response to PfSE was seen only when irradiated autologous feeder cells or recombinant interleukin-2 (IL-2) was added to the
cultures. Live schizonts but not PfSE induced significant IL-2
production in vitro in the first 5 days after stimulation, suggesting
that induction of early IL-2 by live parasites may contribute to the
marked activation of the TCR
+ population.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of
Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Ashworth Laboratories, West Mains Rd., Edinburgh EH9 3JT, United Kingdom. Phone:
0131-650-5540. Fax: 0131-667-3210. E-mail:
e.riley{at}ed.ac.uk.
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