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Simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of Plasmodium falciparum-parasitized and non-parasitized red blood cells by flow cytometry

BACKGROUND: Severe falciparum malaria anaemia (SMA) is a frequent cause of mortality in children and pregnant women. The most important determinant of SMA appears to be the loss of non-parasitized red blood cells (np-RBCs) in excess of loss of parasitized (p-) RBCs at schizogony. Based on data from...

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Autores principales: Gallo, Valentina, Skorokhod, Oleksii A, Schwarzer, Evelin, Arese, Paolo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3546840/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23259636
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-11-428
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author Gallo, Valentina
Skorokhod, Oleksii A
Schwarzer, Evelin
Arese, Paolo
author_facet Gallo, Valentina
Skorokhod, Oleksii A
Schwarzer, Evelin
Arese, Paolo
author_sort Gallo, Valentina
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Severe falciparum malaria anaemia (SMA) is a frequent cause of mortality in children and pregnant women. The most important determinant of SMA appears to be the loss of non-parasitized red blood cells (np-RBCs) in excess of loss of parasitized (p-) RBCs at schizogony. Based on data from acute SMA where excretion of haemoglobin in urine and increased plasma haemoglobin represented respectively less than 1% and 0.5% of total Hb loss, phagocytosis appears to be the predominant mechanism of removal of np- and p-RBC. Estimates indicate that np-RBCs are cleared in approximately 10-fold excess compared to p-RBCs. An even larger removal of np-RBCs has been described in vivax malaria anaemia. Estimates were based on two single studies both performed on neurosyphilitic patients who underwent malaria therapy. As the share of np-RBC removal is likely to vary between wide limits, it is important to assess the contribution of both np- and p-RBC populations to overall RBC loss, and disclose the mechanism of such variability. As available methods do not discriminate between the removal of np- vs p-RBCs, the purpose of this study was to set up a system allowing the simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of p- and np-RBC in the same sample. METHODS AND RESULTS: Phagocytosis of p- and np-RBCs was quantified in the same sample using double-labelled target cells and the human phagocytic cell-line THP-1, pre-activated by TNF and IFNγ to enhance their phagocytic activity. Target RBCs were double-labelled with fluorescent carboxyfluorescein-succinimidyl ester (CF-SE) and the DNA label ethidium bromide (EB). EB, a DNA label, allowed to discriminate p-RBCs that contain parasitic DNA from the np-RBCs devoid of DNA. FACS analysis of THP-1 cells fed with double-labelled RBCs showed that p- and np-RBCs were phagocytosed in different proportions in relation to parasitaemia. CONCLUSIONS: The assay allowed the analysis of phagocytosis rapidly and with low subjective error, and the differentiation between phagocytosed p- and np-RBCs in the same sample. The presented method may help to analyse the factors or conditions that modulate the share of np-RBC removal in vitro and in vivo and lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of SMA.
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spelling pubmed-35468402013-01-17 Simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of Plasmodium falciparum-parasitized and non-parasitized red blood cells by flow cytometry Gallo, Valentina Skorokhod, Oleksii A Schwarzer, Evelin Arese, Paolo Malar J Methodology BACKGROUND: Severe falciparum malaria anaemia (SMA) is a frequent cause of mortality in children and pregnant women. The most important determinant of SMA appears to be the loss of non-parasitized red blood cells (np-RBCs) in excess of loss of parasitized (p-) RBCs at schizogony. Based on data from acute SMA where excretion of haemoglobin in urine and increased plasma haemoglobin represented respectively less than 1% and 0.5% of total Hb loss, phagocytosis appears to be the predominant mechanism of removal of np- and p-RBC. Estimates indicate that np-RBCs are cleared in approximately 10-fold excess compared to p-RBCs. An even larger removal of np-RBCs has been described in vivax malaria anaemia. Estimates were based on two single studies both performed on neurosyphilitic patients who underwent malaria therapy. As the share of np-RBC removal is likely to vary between wide limits, it is important to assess the contribution of both np- and p-RBC populations to overall RBC loss, and disclose the mechanism of such variability. As available methods do not discriminate between the removal of np- vs p-RBCs, the purpose of this study was to set up a system allowing the simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of p- and np-RBC in the same sample. METHODS AND RESULTS: Phagocytosis of p- and np-RBCs was quantified in the same sample using double-labelled target cells and the human phagocytic cell-line THP-1, pre-activated by TNF and IFNγ to enhance their phagocytic activity. Target RBCs were double-labelled with fluorescent carboxyfluorescein-succinimidyl ester (CF-SE) and the DNA label ethidium bromide (EB). EB, a DNA label, allowed to discriminate p-RBCs that contain parasitic DNA from the np-RBCs devoid of DNA. FACS analysis of THP-1 cells fed with double-labelled RBCs showed that p- and np-RBCs were phagocytosed in different proportions in relation to parasitaemia. CONCLUSIONS: The assay allowed the analysis of phagocytosis rapidly and with low subjective error, and the differentiation between phagocytosed p- and np-RBCs in the same sample. The presented method may help to analyse the factors or conditions that modulate the share of np-RBC removal in vitro and in vivo and lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of SMA. BioMed Central 2012-12-21 /pmc/articles/PMC3546840/ /pubmed/23259636 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-11-428 Text en Copyright ©2012 Gallo et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Methodology
Gallo, Valentina
Skorokhod, Oleksii A
Schwarzer, Evelin
Arese, Paolo
Simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of Plasmodium falciparum-parasitized and non-parasitized red blood cells by flow cytometry
title Simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of Plasmodium falciparum-parasitized and non-parasitized red blood cells by flow cytometry
title_full Simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of Plasmodium falciparum-parasitized and non-parasitized red blood cells by flow cytometry
title_fullStr Simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of Plasmodium falciparum-parasitized and non-parasitized red blood cells by flow cytometry
title_full_unstemmed Simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of Plasmodium falciparum-parasitized and non-parasitized red blood cells by flow cytometry
title_short Simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of Plasmodium falciparum-parasitized and non-parasitized red blood cells by flow cytometry
title_sort simultaneous determination of phagocytosis of plasmodium falciparum-parasitized and non-parasitized red blood cells by flow cytometry
topic Methodology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3546840/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23259636
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-11-428
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