Apoptotic genes expression in mice hepatocytes during malaria infection

Malaria represents a major global health problem by causing multi-cellular dysfunctions in the infected host. The aim of the present study was to investigate the apoptotic gene expression in liver of mice during malaria disease by mRNA expression of three genes involved in apoptosis; Bax, Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 and other parameters at different time points after infection with Plasmodium chabaudi in the liver cells of female C57BL/6 mice. Mice were injected intraperitoneally (ip) with 106P. chabaudi-infected erythrocytes and then scarified at days (0, 1, 4 and 8, respectively). Quantitative real-time PCR and immunoblotting were used to quantify apoptotic genes and protein kinetic, respectively. The levels of Bax, Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 were significantly (P < 0.05) increased only at days 1 and 8 compared with day 0 in both the liver cells and protein. The levels of parasitemia was significantly (P < 0.01) increased at day 8 compared with day 0 in the blood. These results have shown that P. chabaudi induced apoptosis in the liver cells. Thus, this study suggests that the induced apoptotic gene expression was due to the out come of malaria.