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Can we be sure that the human Plasmodium exoerythrocytic developmental stages occur exclusively in the liver?

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Abstract

The development cycle of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium sp., in humans takes place after an infected female Anopheles mosquito injects motile infective forms called sporozoites into the bloodstream. Sporozoites migrate via blood vessels to the liver. This pre-erythrocytic tissue stage is widely accepted to occur in humans exclusively in the liver, contrary to avian malaria where this may occur also in other parenchymatous organs. This concept is based on research conducted by English researchers Henry Shortt and P.C.C. Garnham in the late 1940s. Although Italian researchers as, e.g., Giulio Raffaele, additionally claimed the presence of the parasites in the bone marrow, this is not well acknowledged. So, the question remains whether there exists also a tissue life cycle stage in humans.

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Acknowledgments

This work is part of a medical thesis by Gabriele Franken (Franken 2016). The text was translated from German by Sandra Tillmann, International Science Editing, Shannon, Ireland. Medical English was revised by Hannah Raval and Dr. Gabriela Equihua-Martinez.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Theory, and Ethics of Medicine, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Gabriele Franken & Alfons Labisch

  2. Institute of Tropical Medicine and International Health, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany

    Joachim Richter

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  1. Gabriele Franken
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  2. Joachim Richter
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  3. Alfons Labisch
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Correspondence to Gabriele Franken.

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Franken, G., Richter, J. & Labisch, A. Can we be sure that the human Plasmodium exoerythrocytic developmental stages occur exclusively in the liver?. Parasitol Res 119, 667–673 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-019-06564-8

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