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Infect. Immun. doi:10.1128/IAI.01527-06
Copyright (c) 2006, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Expression of merozoite surface protein markers by Plasmodium falciparum infected erythrocytes in peripheral blood and tissues of children with fatal malaria

Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland; Centre de Salut Internacional, Hospital Clínic/IDIBAPS, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi; Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool, UK; Blantyre Malaria Project, University of Malawi College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi; College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI, USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: cdobano{at}clinic.ub.es,

	Abstract

Sequestration of Plasmodium falciparum infected erythrocytes is a pathological feature of fatal cerebral malaria. P. falciparum is genetically diverse among, and often within, patients. Preferential sequestration of certain genotypes might be important in pathogenesis. We compared circulating parasites with parasites sequestered in the brain, spleen, liver and lung in the same Malawian children with fatal malaria, classifying serotypes using antibodies to merozoite surface proteins 1 and 2 and immunofluorescence to differentiate parasites, and to quantify the proportions of each serotype. We found (i) a similar distribution of various serotypes in different tissues, and (ii) a concordance between parasite serotypes in peripheral blood and in tissues. No serotypes predominated in the brain in cerebral malaria, and parasites of a single serotype did not cluster within individual vessels or within single tissues. These findings do not support the hypothesis that cerebral malaria is caused by the cerebral sequestration of certain virulent types.

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