Oxidative damage of erythrocytes infected with Plasmodium falciparum. An in vitro study

The extent of reduced glutathione, activity of glutathione peroxidase, amount of membrane lipid peroxidation products, and the extent of hemoglobin release from host erythrocytes during in vitro Plasmodium falciparum growth was studied. Highly synchronized parasite cultures were studied to examine the alterations caused by different growth stages of the parasite. There was a moderate increase in the reduced glutathione content as the parasite matured, which was significant only in schizont-rich erythrocyte lysates (p < 0.05) whereas the activity of glutathione peroxidase was significantly low in all the parasitized red blood cells (ring-infected RBC, p < 0.005; trophozoite- and schizont-infected RBC, p < 0.001). The lipid peroxidation product, malonyldialdehyde, of the host red cells increased gradually to more than fourfold in schizont-rich cells as compared with normal erythrocytes (p < 0.001). The hemoglobin release from cultured cells was significantly higher in all parasitized red cell cultures as well as in uninfected cells kept in in vitro, as compared with normal erythrocytes. The consequence of such changes induced by the malarial parasites in the host red cells in the pathogenesis of erythrocyte destruction and anemia of P. falciparum malaria is discussed.