Different apoptotic responses to <i>Plasmodium chabaudi</i> malaria in spleen and liver

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the apoptotic responses to Plasmodium chabaudi malaria in spleen and liver via mRNA expression of three genes involved in apoptosis (Bax, Bcl-2 and Caspase-3) are similar or not and to detect if these genes could be a good marker for apoptosis due to infection with P. chabaudi of female C57BL/6 mice. Mice were injected intraperitoneally (ip) with 106 P. chabaudi-infected erythrocytes and then scarified at days (0, 1, 4 and 8, respectively). Quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to quantify apoptotic genes. The levels of Bax and caspase-3 were significantly  increased only at days 1 and 8 in the liver cells and at day 8 in the spleen when compared with day 0. The level of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) was significantly increased at all three days after infection in the liver cells, but significantly decreased at all three days after infection in the spleen. In conclusion, present data has shown  that infection with P. chabaudi stimulated apoptotic genes in the liver and spleen cells in different ways. Based on the obtained data, it can be hypothesized that the out come of malaria triggered different apoptotic  pathways in the liver and spleen. Also, these apoptotic genes can be used as a reliable apoptosis detection method.

Key word: Apoptosis, malaria, mice, liver, spleen.