Associations between anti-Schistosoma mansoni and anti-Plasmodium falciparum antibody responses and hepatosplenomegaly, in Kenyan schoolchildren.

Schoolchildren from 2 areas of Kenya, Kangundo and Kambu, have contrasting prevalences of hepatosplenomegaly, despite having similar prevalences and intensities of Schistosoma mansoni infection. However, in individual children, S. mansoni infection intensity is positively correlated with organomegaly. In a previous study, hepatosplenomegaly was associated with Th1-type anti-schistosome cytokine responses. Although the high-morbidity Kambu area had higher malaria transmission than did low-morbidity Kangundo, hepatosplenomegaly was not associated with clinical malaria or with patent malarial parasitemia. However, chronic exposure to malaria might be involved. Here, retrospectively, we assayed plasma from this original study, for anti-Plasmodium falciparum and anti-S. mansoni antibodies, to test whether greater exposure to Plasmodium was a cofactor for hepatosplenomegaly. We found that hepatosplenic children had significantly higher levels of anti-P. falciparum antibodies, compared with nonhepatosplenic children, a finding that strongly suggests that some experience of P. falciparum influenced the development of hepatosplenomegaly in these S. mansoni-infected children.