Cerebral Vascular Function in a Murine Model of Experimental Cerebral Malaria

Abstract

Cerebral Malaria (CM) is among the most severe complications of malarial infection, with a mortality rate of 15–20%. Many survivors of CM develop lasting neurological sequalae, cognitive and behavioral impairments, or epilepsy. However, the etiology of CM is poorly defined, and treatment strategies are limited.Studies in the murine model of experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) have demonstrated cerebral blood flow (CBF) impairments that are associated with decreased nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability, blood brain barrier disruption, endothelial activation, impaired pial vessel reactivity, and cerebral ischemia. While these complications have been observed in vivo, cerebral artery function has not specifically been evaluated in ECM. Therefore, the aim of this study was to interrogate vasoreactivity and NO bioavailability in cerebral arteries (CAs) isolated from ECM mice, with the hypothesis that arterial vasodilatory function would be impaired by ECM.ECM was induced by Plasmodium berghei ANKA (PbA) infection in 10–12 week old C57Bl/6J mice and confirmed by murine coma score. On day 6 post‐infection, CBF was measured by laser speckle imaging. Cerebral arteries (CAs) were dissected from the brain into a modified Krebs buffer. Cerebral vasoreactivity was assessed by ex vivo pressure myography in middle cerebral arteries (MCA) obtained from control (n=4) and ECM (n=7) mice. NO production from dissected vessels was measured in an ex vivo Daf‐2 fluorescence assay (n=6, n=6).As expected, ECM mice had a significant, 25% reduction in CBF. However, ex vivo MCAs from ECM mice maintained robust endothelium‐dependent vasodilation to methacholine (MCh), which was inhibited by L‐NAME. ECM MCAs also exhibited normal dose responses to serotonin‐induced vasoconstriction and nitroprusside‐induced vasodilation, suggesting normal vasoreactivity of ECM cerebral arteries. Similarly, the results of the ex vivo Daf‐2 assay showed that the MCh‐induced NO production from ECM arteries was comparable to controls. To test whether ECM plasma would induce vascular dysfunction in ex vivo CAs, we incubated CAs obtained from ECM (n=2) and control (n=6) mice in plasma collected from ECM or control animals. Surprisingly, we found that plasma from ECM mice increased NO production of both ECM and control CAs.These unexpected results indicate that NO bioavailability and vasoreactivity are preserved in cerebral vessels in ECM, and that circulating factors in the plasma during PbA infection actively stimulate NO production. Our next focus will be on reconciling decreased CBF with preserved vascular function, as well as identifying the NO‐stimulating mediator(s) present within ECM plasma.Support or Funding InformationResearch and funding support from NIAID Division of Intramural Research.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.