Abstract

The vitamin-A uptake of Plasmodium falciparum was investigated by culturing a standard isolate of the parasite (FCR-3) with (3)H-labelled vitamin A, at concentrations of the vitamin corresponding to those normally present in human serum. The (3)H-labelled vitamin A accumulated in the parasites from each culture in a parasitaemia-dependent manner. The radioactivity detected in the parasites increased with parasite maturation from the ring to the late-trophozoite stage. In addition, most of the radioactivity incorporated into the parasite cells was in the cytoplasm. The accumulation of vitamin A in the cytoplasm of late trophozoites indicates that P. falciparum may use vitamin A, from its human host, as an antioxidant, to protect itself from oxidative stress while intra-erythrocytic. The amount of the vitamin taken up by the parasite in vitro is small compared with the deficit that sometimes causes severe hypovitaminosis A in malaria cases. Consumption of vitamin A by the parasites together with the systemic decreases in non-enzymatic antioxidants that are seen in malaria may together cause this characteristic hypovitaminosis.