Evidence against the red blood cell origin of mitogenic factors in mouse malarial infection

The mean [3H]thymidine incorporation in response to stimulation of spleen cells of malaria-immune and non-immune BALB/c mice by normal mouse red blood cell culture supernatants were compared with unstimulated cultures of the same spleen cells. No significant difference was obtained between stimulated and unstimulated cultures for both immune and non-immune spleen cells. These findings do not support the hypothesis that erythrocyte-derived mitogenic factors occur in malarial infection.