Figure 3.
Platelets are not associated with dying parasites during resolving non-eCM Pca infection in thin blood films. The analyses were performed in thin blood films fluorescence labeled with anti-CD41 (blue; platelets), ethidium bromide (red: parasites), and TUNEL (green). (A) Platelet effector-to-target (iRBC) ratios (filled blue square), platelet:uRBC ratios (open green square), and parasitemia (filled red circle). Platelet:RBC indicates a platelet RBC conjugate; the RBC maybe uninfected (uRBC) or infected (iRBC). (B) Percent PbA parasitemia for all RBCs (red square) ([#iRBC/#RBC]%) and considering only RBCs with bound platelets (blue square) ([#platelet:iRBC/#platelet:RBC]%). (C) Percentage of RBCs with bound platelets with uninfected (red) ([#platelet:uRBC/#platelet:RBC]%) or infected (blue bars) RBCs: ([#platelet:iRBC/#platelet:RBC]%). (D) The percentage of iRBCs with an adherent platelet ([#platelet:iRBC/#iRBC]%). (E) Representative thin blood film made on day 6PI and fluorescently labeled; blue arrows indicate platelets, red arrows indicate parasites without TUNEL, and yellow arrows indicate parasites with TUNEL (green+red). (F) Percentage on days 6, 8, and 12PI of iRBCs exhibiting TUNEL+ labeling (green bar, x-axis) ([(#TUNEL + iRBCs)/#iRBCs]%) and TUNEL– (red bar, x-axis) ([(#TUNEL − iRBCs)/#iRBCs]%) with the percentage of each iRBC+, TUNEL+ or iRBC+, TUNEL– ([(#platelet:TUNEL − iRBCs)/#iRBCs]%) exhibiting an adherent platelet shown as an inset (blue bar). This experiment was repeated twice (n = 5) and verified by flow cytometry. Values are average ± SEM.