Fig. 3

Distinct patterns of lipids in different blood-stage P. falciparum. Absolute amounts of major lipid classes in RBCs infected with gametocyte-stage P. falciparum (a) and proportion of major lipid species (b). CE cholesteryl ester, DAG diacylglycerol, TAG triacylglycerol, FC free cholesterol, PC phosphatidylcholine, PE phosphatidylethanolamine, PS phosphatidylserine, PG phosphatidylglycerol, SM sphingomyelin, Cer ceramide. uRBC uninfected red blood cells, Troph trophozoites, I–V gametocytes stage I to V. Means and standard deviations of three independent experiments were shown. To determine differences in lipid content of stage I to stage V gametocytes-infected red blood cells, unpaired Student’s t test was performed using GraphPad Prism 6.0. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001