Similar cytokine responses and degrees of anemia in patients with Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax infections in the Brazilian Amazon region.

The mechanisms of malarial anemia induction are poorly understood, but cytokines and autoantibodies are considered to play important roles. This work aimed at evaluating the degree of anemia and the plasmatic profile of the cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), interleukin-12 (IL-12), migration inhibitory factor (MIF), and IL-10 and the monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) chemokine, as well as evaluating the presence of antibodies directed to components of the normal erythrocyte membrane and to cardiolipin in individuals with malaria from the Brazilian Amazon. No difference was observed in the frequency of anemia between patients infected by Plasmodium vivax and those infected by Plasmodium falciparum, and there was no relationship between the levels of parasitemia and the manifestations of anemia in P.

Trypanosoma cruzi in a caviomorph rodent: parasitological and pathological features of the experimental infection of Trichomys apereoides (Rodentia, Echimyidae).

To understand the interaction of Trypanosoma cruzi with caviomorph rodents, which supposedly have an ancient co-evolutionary history with this parasite, experimental infection of laboratory reared Trichomys apereoides with several isolates of both genotypes of the parasite was studied. Parasitemia, pattern of hematic cells, specific humoral immune response, histopathological features and parasite clearance were appraised. T.