Effect of Plasmodium berghei on membranes of murine erythrocytes.

Membranes from normal and Plasmodium berghei-infected mice were analyzed to determine: 1) if any antigenic changes were present; and 2) the nature of these changes. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), immunological and biochemical analyses were performed on whole ghosts and glycoprotein fractions extracted from whole ghosts by chloroform-methanol. PAGE profiles and biochemical analyses revealed quantitative, but not qualitative, differences between membrane proteins and glycoproteins of normal and infected membranes. No antigenic changes were detected. The data presented here suggest that productive infection with P. berghei brings about an imbalance in the protein composition of the erythrocyte membrane, but does not result in the insertion of new proteins or glycoproteins.