title: Vitamin C deficiency fails to protect mice from malaria.
abstract: Nutritional deficiencies are frequent in malaria-endemic areas. It seems that micronutrient antioxidants play an important role in malaria parasite's proliferation. Thus, the effect of vitamin C deficiency on malaria infection was examined in mice. When vitamin C deficient mice, L-gulono-gamma-lactone oxidase gene knockout mice which are unable to synthesize ascorbic acid, were infected with a lethal dose of Plasmodium berghei NK65-infected red blood cells, the knockout mice showed similar parasitemia kinetics and survival rates as wild-type mice. The results indicate that deficiency of vitamin C might not affect the development of the malaria parasite in mice.
authors.affiliation: Research Unit for Functional Genomics, National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada, Obihiro, Japan.
authors.forename: Maria Shirley
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Herbas
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001206:Ascorbic Acid Deficiency / Q000150:complications* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D050544:L-Gulonolactone Oxidase / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics; D008288:Malaria / Q000150:complications* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D018512:Parasitemia; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000502:physiology; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D050544:L-Gulonolactone Oxidase