Mouse MRI & MR Angiography at 9.4T to Study the Role of PKC θ Protein in Neurological Complication of Malaria

Sandra Mme¹, Mathilde Fauconnier², Marie-Laure Bourrigault², Bernard Ryffel², Valrie Quesniaux², Jean-Claude Beloeil¹

Malaria involves intravascular changes with sequestration of parasitized erythrocytes and host cells in cerebral micro vessels. An animal model infected by Plasmodium berghei ANKA (PbA) has been established to study the pathology. In this model, T-cell activation is required for the development of PbA-induced experimental cerebral malaria. In order to characterize the T cell activation pathway involved, we wanted to adress the role of protein kinase C-Theta (PKC-) from ECM development upon blood stage infection with PbA. In this study, MRA and T2-weighted MRI were used to verify the lack of ischemia and microvascular pathology in PKC- PbA infected mice