%0 Journal Article
%T Changes in the levels of cytokines, chemokines and malaria-specific antibodies in response to Plasmodium falciparum infection in children living in sympatry in Mali
%A St¨¦phanie Bostr£¿m
%A Pablo Giusti
%A Charles Arama
%A Jan-Olov Persson
%A Victor Dara
%A Boubacar Traore
%A Amagana Dolo
%A Ogobara Doumbo
%A Marita Troye-Blomberg
%J Malaria Journal
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-2875-11-109
%X Circulating inflammatory factors and antibody levels in children from the Fulani and Dogon ethnic groups were measured. The inflammatory cytokines; interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and the chemokines; regulated on activation normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), monokine-induced by IFN-gamma (MIG), monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1 and IFN-gamma-inducible protein (IP)-10 were measured by cytometric bead arrays. The levels of interferon (IFN)-alpha, IFN-gamma and malaria-specific antibodies; immunoglobulin (Ig) G, IgM and IgG subclasses (IgG1-IgG4) were measured by ELISA.The results revealed that the Fulani children had higher levels of all tested cytokines compared to the Dogon, in particular IFN-gamma, a cytokine known to be involved in parasite clearance. Out of all the tested chemokines, only MCP-1 was increased in the Fulani compared to the Dogon. When dividing the children into infected and uninfected individuals, infected Dogon had significantly lower levels of RANTES compared to their uninfected peers, and significantly higher levels of MIG and IP-10 as well as MCP-1, although the latter did not reach statistical significance. In contrast, such patterns were not seen in the infected Fulani children and their chemokine levels remained unchanged upon infection compared to uninfected counterparts. Furthermore, the Fulani also had higher titres of malaria-specific IgG and IgM as well as IgG1-3 subclasses compared to the Dogon.Taken together, this study demonstrates, in accordance with previous work, that Fulani children mount a stronger inflammatory and antibody response against P. falciparum parasites compared to the Dogon and that these differences are evident already at an early age. The inflammatory responses in the Fulani were not influenced by an active infection which could explain why less clinical symptoms are seen in this group.Infection with Plasmodium falciparum remains one of the most common
%K cytokines
%K chemokines
%K antibodies
%K Plasmodium falciparum
%K Fulani
%K Dogon
%U http://www.malariajournal.com/content/11/1/109