Imprimir

Seminaris

"Erythropoietic activity in bone marrow from children with severe malarial anemia"

13/01/2010
14.00 - 15.00 h
Seminari 2, Facultat de Medicina, Hospital Clínic

Severe malarial anemia accounts for more than half of all childhood deaths from malaria in Africa. However, there are major knowledge gaps regarding the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the pathology. Erythropoiesis in the bone marrow can be disturbed during severe malarial anemia, but observations in humans have been limited by small sample numbers. Therefore, we are using diverse skills of researchers at WEHI (Australia), CRESIB (Spain) and CISM (Mozambique) to analyse bone marrow from 450 anemic children enrolled in a case-control study in Manhiça, a unique sample set for studying erythropoiesis.

We have established a flow-cytometric assay which is superior to peripheral reticulocyte levels as a measure of erythropoietic activity in the bone marrow. This showed that while most of the malarial anemics were responding appropriately by up-regulating red cell production, we also found a high incidence of erythropoietic suppression. Gene expression patterns in these groups are being analysed by Illumina microarray in order to gain diagnostic and mechanistic insight into erythropoietic suppression in malaria. The gene signature for erythropoietic activity is clearer than that for suppression, but genes associated with both innate and adaptive immune activation have been identified as possible hits. The findings from this study may aid in improving therapeutic and public health interventions for severe malarial anemia.

Ariel Achtman, Louis Schofield at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne (Australia)

Consultar seminaris anteriors