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Fig. 1 | Malaria Journal

Fig. 1

From: The effects of dyslipidaemia and cholesterol modulation on erythrocyte susceptibility to malaria parasite infection

Fig. 1

Incubating red cells with MβCD coupled cholesterol leads to incorporation of cholesterol into red cell membranes and increased red cell bending modulus. Repeated attempts to increase red cell cholesterol by incubating cells in media supplemented with cholesterol alone did not result in changes to red cell biophysical properties. Summary of (a, c) tension (σ) and (b, d) bending modulus (κ) values of red cells from two different donors pre-treated with a wide range of cholesterol concentrations. Pre-treatment of red cells with MβCD coupled cholesterol similarly did not affect red cell (e) tension (σ) but significantly increased red cell (f) bending moduli (κ). Each circle represents data from a single cell, and the solid line represents the median. To quantify the red cell cholesterol, first a cholesterol fluorometric standard curve was set up to show the linear range of the cholesterol quantitation assay (h). Red cells were incubated with increasing amounts of MβCD coupled cholesterol, washed and lipid membranes purified prior to cholesterol quantification. A concentration dependent increase in the cholesterol content was found in erythrocytes that had been incubated with MβCD coupled cholesterol (g). P values comparing the treatment versus control flicker spectroscopy data were calculated using the Mann–Whitney test (ns not significant; ****p < 0.0001)

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