Fig. 4

Comparison of the average levels of RBC production and removal calculated for malaria naïve infected, semi-immune infected, and control rhesus macaques. The plot shows the total amount of production and removal by the different processes affecting RBCs during the 30-day period when the macaques were followed. In the infected macaques, the production was separated into two components: the amount of erythropoietic output the macaques would have had if they had not been infected (Non-infected Production) and the production of RBCs induced by the infection. Four different removal processes were quantified, two of which are normal physiological processes: Senescence Removal and Age-independent Removal. Here, age-independent removal accounts for the normal lysis of RBCs, which occurs in circulation due to the physical stresses imposed on the RBCs, but which are not dependent on age. Senescence removal accounts for all normal processes by which RBCs are taken from circulation due to age. The two removal processes that are due to the infection with Plasmodium are direct removal due to parasitization and removal of uninfected RBCs. The former includes only cells that are infected by the parasite, whereas the latter accounts for RBCs that are removed during an infection but were not infected by a merozoite