Plasmodium falciparum in vitro: diminished growth in hemoglobin H disease
erythrocytes
TC Ifediba, A Stern, A Ibrahim and RF Rieder
Studies of the ability of Plasmodium falciparum to grow in vitro in the red
blood cells of subjects with certain beta-thalassemia syndromes are often
difficult to interpret because of the known inhibitory effect of an
elevated cellular content of human fetal hemoglobin (HbF). P falciparum
therefore was cultured in vitro in the erythrocytes of subjects with
hemoglobin H (HbH) disease and various other alpha- thalassemia genotypes
that are unaccompanied by increased levels of HbF. Growth of the malaria
parasite was markedly retarded in HbH red blood cells, when compared with
growth in blood from normal control subjects. No consistent impairment of
growth was seen in the erythrocytes of subjects having deletion of only one
or two alpha- globin genes. These results indicate that erythrocytes with a
severe thalassemia phenotype provide a less hospitable growth environment
for P falciparum than normally hemoglobinized red blood cells, even in the
absence of increased levels of HbF.
Volume 65,
Issue 2,
pp. 452-455,
02/01/1985
Copyright © 1985 by The American Society of Hematology
