Concentration of invasion- modulating factors in pooled serum from uninfected and P. falciparum infected women at enrolment.

Note: Mean concentrations (and SD) of invasion stimulatory factors (IGF-I, IGF-II, and IL-8) were lower in pooled serum from women with P. falciparum infection compared to match uninfected controls. In the same pooled serum samples, factors that inhibit trophoblast invasion (hCG, IL-10) were higher in infected women than in uninfected women. IGF- Insulin like growth factor, IL- interleukin, TNF tumor necrosis factor, hCG human chorionic gonadotrophin. (+) indicates known previously reported trophoblast invasion-promoting effects [46], [47], [48], [49], [50], known trophoblast invasion inhibitory effects are indicated by (−) [48], [49], [51], [52], reports of both inhibitory and promoting effects are indicated by (+/−) [53], and (unreported) indicates an absence of previous reports on trophoblast invasion. All analyte concentrations in pooled serum were measured once and are expressed as pg/ml, except hCG (IU/ml). IGF-I, IGF-II and hCG were measured in triplicate (analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test), and all cytokines were measured in duplicate (analyzed using unpaired t test with Welch’s correction).