Abstract
Mast cells (MCs) are effector cells of the immune system commonly known for their role in asthma and allergy. They are present throughout biological systems in various tissues, serving as an interface between the biological system and environment. Previous work characterizing the impact of malaria on MCs revealed contradictory results, showing minimal to strong correlation between MC degranulation and disease progression. This work seeks to reveal how MC degranulation is impacted in the presence of malaria, induced by Plasmodium chabaudi, using a mouse model and a single cell measurement technique that reveals exquisite biophysical detail about any impacts to the degranulation process. It was hypothesized that the malaria parasites would impact MC degranulation response during live infection, and the differences would be revealed via carbon-fiber microelectrode amperometry. In fact, the data collected show that different stages of malaria infection affect MC degranulation differently, affirming the importance of considering different infection stages in future studies of malarial immune response. Furthermore, a comparison of MC degranulation response to that measured from platelets under similar circumstances shows similar trends in quantitative degranulation, suggesting that MC and platelet exocytosis machinery are affected similarly despite their distinct biological roles. However, based on the small number of mouse replicates, the studies herein suggest that there should be further study about cellular and disease processes. Overall, the work herein reveals important details about the role of MCs in malaria progression, relevant during treatment decisions, as well as a potentially generalizable impact on chemical messenger secretion from cells during malarial progression.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1650-1656 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | ACS Infectious Diseases |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 11 2021 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was funded by support from the University of Minnesota Biotechnology Training Grant (NIH T32GM008347) to K.X. The TOC figure was created with BioRender.com .
Publisher Copyright:
©
Keywords
- Plasmodium chabaudi
- carbon-fiber microelectrode amperometry
- electrochemical technique
- malaria
- mast cells
- single cell
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural