Lymphocyte traffic and lymphocyte destruction in murine malaria.

Normal lymphocytes labelled with 51Cr were injected into mice at various stages of lethal and non-lethal malaria infections. Marked alterations were seen in the uptake into spleen and liver, which correlated with the outcome of the infection. Non-lethal infections and lethal infections in mice protected by vaccination caused increased uptakes, especially in the liver. In lethal infections, particularly Plasmodium berghei, uptakes were below normal values at certain times: this was apparently due to destruction of lymphocytes, probably caused by autoantibody.