Fas has a role in cerebral malaria, but not in proliferation or exclusion of the murine parasite in mice.
We examined the susceptibility of murine Fas-deficient mutants to malaria infection in order to investigate the role of Fas in an experimental murine model of cerebral malaria (CM). We infected mice of B6 and CBA wild-type and mutant backgrounds with Plasmodium berghei ANKA. The incidence of CM in the mutant mice (B6-lpr, CBA-lprcg) was decreased by about 50% compared with wild-type control strains at 2 weeks after infection. We did not observe significant differences of parasitemia during a murine malaria infection with nonlethal Plasmodium yoelii 17XNL between wild-type and lymphoproliferative (lpr) mutant mice of C3H and MRL genetic backgrounds, although B6-lpr mice exhibited significantly higher parasitemia than did B6 mice 12 to 18 days after infection. These results suggest Fas has a possible role in CM but may not play a major role in the proliferation or exclusion of a murine malaria parasite in a nonlethal infection.
Ohno
Tamio
T
Division of Experimental Animals, Center for Promotion of Medical Research and Education, Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 466-8550, Japan. ohno@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Kobayashi
Fumie
F
Nishimura
Masahiko
M
D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D016779:Malaria, Cerebral / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D019463:Mice, Inbred MRL lpr; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains; D018512:Parasitemia / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000254:growth & development / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D010967:Plasmodium yoelii / Q000254:growth & development / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D013045:Species Specificity; D019014:fas Receptor / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
D019014:fas Receptor