Gene expression profiling of Plasmodium falciparum after co-culture with NK cells

The aim of the study was to determine the effect of natural killer (NK) cells on the global gene expression in Plasmodium falciparum. FCR3-CSA-infected red blood cells (RBCs) were co-cultured for 24h with NK92. Prior to RNA extraction, the parasitized RBCs were separated via Ficoll from the lymphocyte fraction. Control cultures of parasites without NK cells were cultivated in parallel. In addition, the effect of the separation method was determined via a Ficoll control culture of FCR3-CSA that was passed over a Ficoll gradient. All three treatments were performed in triplicate. The RNA was reverse-transcribed and hybridized onto microarrays.