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Published on: August 6, 2020
Mini-Column for Cytoadherence: A New Method for Measuring the Relative Size of Binding Subpopulations in Plasmodium
1Molecular and Cellular Biology Research Center, Laboratory Sciences Group, Faculty of Paramedical, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
Background:
Cytoadherence of Plasmodium falciparum- infected red blood cells to endothelial cells is an important mechanism for parasite survival and a major trigger for diseases pathology. Here, we describe a new adhesion assay in which different cell types (CHO, CHO/CD36 and CHO/ICAM-1) are attached to Cytodex beads in a mini-column format to measure the relative sizes of various binding subpopulations as a percentage of the total population.
Methods:
Relative size of CD36 and ICAM-1-binding subpopulations of erythrocytes infected with P. falciparum were measured by amount of parasitemia before and after passing the infected erythrocytes through a particular column.
Results:
The mini-column adhesion assay was a suitable method as parasitemia always reduced after passing through a particular column in independent experiments. For example, in a typical experiment using P. falciparum ITG line, 75% of the parasites are retained on a CHO/ICAM-1 while 0% of clone 3D7 is retained.
Conclusion:
This work introduced and validated a method for measuring the relative size of parasite binding subpopulations and the selection of them. Also, the mini-column method is of value for assessments of cytoadherence and can be used as tool for different applications.
