Background: Immune responses to malaria blood stage infection are in general defective, with the need for long-term exposure to the parasite to achieve immunity, and with the development of immunopathology states such as cerebral malaria in many cases. One of the potential reasons for the difficulty in developing protective immunity is the poor development of memory responses. In this paper, the potential association of cellular reactivity in lymphoid organs (spleen, lymph nodes and Peyer's patches) with immunity and pathology was evaluated during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection in CBA mice.
Methods: CBA mice were infected with 1 x 10(6) P. berghei ANKA-parasitized erythrocytes and killed on days 3, 6-8 and 10 of infection. The spleen, lymph nodes and Peyer's patches were collected, fixed in Carson's formalin, cut in 5 mum sections, mounted in glass slides, stained with Lennert's Giemsa and haematoxylin-eosin and analysed with bright-field microscopy.
Results: Early (day 3) strong activation of T cells in secondary lymphoid organs was observed and, on days 6-8 of infection, there was overwhelming activation of B cells, with loss of conventional germinal center architecture, intense centroblast activation, proliferation and apoptosis but little differentiation to centrocytes. In the spleen, the marginal zone disappeared and the limits between the disorganized germinal center and the red pulp were blurred. Intense plasmacytogenesis was observed in the T cell zone.
Conclusion: The observed alterations, especially the germinal center architecture disturbance (GCAD) with poor centrocyte differentiation, suggest that B cell responses during P. berghei ANKA infection in mice are defective, with potential impact on B cell memory responses.