Intravital placenta imaging reveals microcirculatory dynamics impact on sequestration and phagocytosis of Plasmodium-infected erythrocytes.

ABSTRACT: Malaria in pregnancy is exquisitely aggressive, causing a range of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes prominently linked to Plasmodium-infected erythrocyte cytoadherence to fetal trophoblast. To elucidate the physiopathology of infected erythrocytes (IE) sequestration in the placenta we devised an experimental system for intravital placental examination of P. berghei-infected mice. BALB/c females were mated to C57Bl/6 CFP+ male mice and infected with GFP+ P. berghei IE, and at gestational day 18, placentas were exposed for time-lapse imaging acquisition under two-photon microscopy. Real-time images and quantitative measurements revealed that trophoblast conformational changes transiently restrain blood flow in the mouse placental labyrinth. The complex dynamics of placental microcirculati

SUBMITTER: de Moraes LV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3561179 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature