Febrile temperature leads to significant stiffening of Plasmodium falciparum parasitized erythrocytes.

ABSTRACT: Parasitic infection with Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for the most severe form of human malaria in which patients suffer from periodic fever. It is well established that during intra-erythrocytic maturation of the parasite in the red blood cell (RBC), the RBC becomes significantly more cytoadhesive and less deformable; these and other biochemical factors together with human host factors such as compromised immune status are important contributors to the disease pathology. There is currently substantial interest in understanding the loss of RBC deformability due to P. falciparum infection, but few results are available concerning effects of febrile conditions or parasitization on RBC membrane rheology. Here, for the first time, we report rheology of the single, isolated RBC with and

SUBMITTER: Marinkovic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2636996 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature