Cytokine and chemokine responses in a cerebral malaria-susceptible or -resistant strain of mice to Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection: early chemokine expression in the brain

A comparative study was carried out on cytokine and chemokine responses in a cerebral malaria (CM)-susceptible or -resistant strain of mice (C57BL/6 or BALB/c respectively) in Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection. C57BL/6 mice died by 10 days after infection when parasitemia was approximately 15-20% with cerebral symptoms, while BALB/c mice survived until week 3 after infection. Although both strains showed T(h)1-skewed responses on day 4 after infection, significantly higher levels of IFN-gamma, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and NO were observed during the course of the infection in BALB/c, suggesting that T(h)1 responses are involved in the resistance. Interestingly, in the brain, both strains expressed IFN-inducible protein of 10 kDa (IP-10) and monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1 genes as early as at 24 h post-infection, whereas some differences were observed between both strains thereafter, i.e. enhanced expression of RANTES in C57BL/6, and of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha in BALB/c respectively. Moreover, the expression of IP-10 and MCP-1 genes in KT-5, an astrocyte cell line, was induced in vitro upon stimulation with a crude antigen of malaria parasites. These results suggest that the direct involvement of brain parenchymal cells takes place in response to plasmodial infection, providing a new aspect to analyze possible mechanisms of CM. This is the first report on the chemokine expression in neuroglial cells in response to malaria infection.