Heterophilic antibodies in relation to malarial infection: population and experimental studies.

  • 1 September 1974
    • journal article
    • Vol. 18  (1) , 89-93
Abstract
Heterophilic antibodies (HA) to sheep erythrocytes were studied in sera from people living at malarious and non-malarious altitudes in Tanzania. Positive blood smears for trophozoites and antibodies to plasmodia were identified from subjects living in the malarious areas, but not from those living at a malaria-free altitude. Both study groups contained HA at equivalent titres. HA were also identified in the sera of patients attending a sickle-cell clinic in the U.S.A., as well as in the sera of monkeys acutely infected with experimental malaria. These observations do not support the concept that HA are integrally associated with host resistance to malaria. They suggest that HA are associated with conditions of abnormal structure or function or erythrocytes as well as with several infectious diseases, including malaria.