Relative cytoadherence of parasitized HbAA, HbAS, and HbAC RBCs to MVECs.

Over three transmission seasons (2008, 2009, and 2010), a total of 31 cytoadherence comparisons were performed between parasites from HbAA and HbAS (or HbAC) children by inoculating them into wild-type donor RBCs and assaying their binding to MVECs in parallel. The ratio of parasitized RBCs (pRBC) bound per MVEC (pRBC/MVEC) was calculated for each sample tested. The pRBC/MVEC ratio from the HbAS- or HbAC-derived parasite in each comparison was then normalized to that of the HbAA-derived parasite from the same comparison to give a measure of the relative cytoadherence. Two comparisons (AS13 vs. AA12 and AC10 vs. AA22) were performed over multiple slides, as shown. Also, several samples (indicated in bold) were used in multiple comparisons.