Immunoglobulin profile of Nigerian children with Plasmodium falciparum infection.

Abstract

The immunoglobulin profiles of 126 Nigerian children infected with Plasmodium falciparum in their peripheral blood were investigated. The mean malarial parasitaemia was 4699.17 ± 3695.2 µl. The mean immunoglobulin profile of these infected children were 2.68 ± 0.019 mg/dl for IgA, 0.031 ± 0.01 mg/dl for IgD, 1358.29 ± 123.57 ng/dl for IgE, 19.09 ± 1.27 mg/dl for IgG and 2.80 ± 0.57 mg/dl for IgM. The relationship between the IgD and IgE were positively correlated with the ages of the volunteers at (r = 0.89 and r = 0.97, respectively). The levels of IgA, IgG and IgM were negatively correlated with the ages of the infected children (r = -0.96, r = -0.99 and r = -0.85, respectively). The relationship between the level of parasitaemia and IgA, IgD and IgM were negatively correlated (r = -0.82, r = -0.84 and r = -0.82, respectively). IgG correlated positively with the level of malarial parasitaemia (r = 0.99). We deduce that high IgE and low levels of IgA and IgM are associated with the high risk of P. falciparum malaria attack in our community.