Correlation of Plasma Soluble Fas Ligand Levels with Severe Anaemia in Gabonese and Indian Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Patients

A comparative analysis of the plasma concentrations of soluble Fas-L (sFas-L) and their correlation with he- moglobin levels and malaria severity was carried out in cohorts of P. falciparum-infected patients from Gabon and India. Young patients from Gabon had plasma levels of sFas-L that increased with disease severity. In contrast, in Indian adults plasmatic sFas-L levels were more elevated in UM and SNCM than in CM. In both Gabonese and Indian subjects, sFas-L concentrations were negatively correlated with haemoglobin rates, which were lower in SNCM than in UM or CM in both populations. We also observed a positive correlation between the level of plasmatic sFas-L with the level of circulating IL-2 receptor in the Indian patients. All these observations suggest a paradoxical role of sFas-L in CM pathogenesis when comparing Gabonese and Indian patients, while a similar role was found to be associated with severe anaemia.