Fig. 4

Plasmodium berghei invasion rates obtained from Chow and High-Fat Diet (HFD) LDL-R^−/− mice do not differ significantly between chow fed and high fat diets. Invasion rates obtained from Chow and High-Fat Diet (HFD) fed LDL-R^−/−. a Representative flow cytometry profiles highlighting infected red cell populations obtained from mice fed the standard Chow diet (Chow) and high fat diet (HFD). A blood sample in the absence of merozoites and a sample with merozoites and CytD are shown as gating controls. (b, d) Quantification of P. berghei invasion assays carried out on two separate days with newly harvested parasites obtained from different mice. Values represent mean and standard deviation of triplicate wells. The invasion percentages summarized per group are shown for both experiments in (c, e). Each circle represents the average invasion percentage per sample, line represents mean. No significant differences were found in erythrocyte invasion efficiency between Chow and HFD groups. The correlation between red cell invasion and total plasma cholesterol is shown in (f) along with the Pearson correlation coefficient (r), p value and a linear regression line modelling the correlation with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The correlation is not significant (p > 0.05). P values comparing P. berghei invasion into red cells from HFD or Chow fed mice were calculated using the Student’s t test (ns not significant)