title: Possible roles of tumor necrosis factor in the pathology of malaria.
abstract: The authors have earlier proposed that tumor necrosis factor (TNF) might contribute to the pathology of malaria. Here they report the outcome of injecting recombinant human TNF/cachectin into normal mice and others with low parasitemias (6-35%) of Plasmodium vinckei. The object was to see how precisely the pathologic features of the terminal stages of this infection could be produced, when parasitemias are 70-80%. Hypoglycemia, mid-zonal liver damage, and pulmonary accumulation of neutrophils in the pulmonary vasculature, all of which are seen in severe P vinckei infection, occurred within 4-12 hours after the mildly infected mice received TNF/cachectin. Uninfected mice were much less susceptible. TNF/cachectin also increases plasma lactate, a change seen in both the human and rodent diseases. From these findings and the recent literature on TNF/cachectin, including its detection in serum from malarial patients, it seems likely that excessive release of this monokine could account for certain of the unexplained pathologic features of human malaria.
authors: Department of Zoology, Science Faculty, Australian National University, Canberra.
authors: I A
authors: IA
authors: Clark
authors: W B
authors: WB
authors: Cowden
authors: G A
authors: GA
authors: Butcher
authors: N H
authors: NH
authors: Hunt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D007773:Lactates / Q000097:blood; D019344:Lactic Acid; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D008288:Malaria / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D007773:Lactates; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D019344:Lactic Acid