A research report submitted to the faculty of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in part fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Medicine (in the branch of Haematology)
Johannesburg 1992. / The observation by Haldane in 1949 that the distribution of malaria and
certain thalassaemias were similar and that the former disease must be a
selective force tor the continued existence of the latter by preservation of the
heterozygotes. This theory which later became known as lithe malaria
hypothesis" has been applied to other inherited conditions such as G6PD
deficiency, membranopathies, certain blood group polymorphisms, other
heamoglobinopathies such as sickle cell disease, blood group polymorphisms
and more recently HLA phenotypes.
It has been shown that the Duffy blood group antigens are the receptors for.
Plasmodium vivax and since these antigens are lacking in most black Africans
this species of malaria is virtually absent in Africa. It has also been shown
that the glycophorins are at least in part the receptors for Pfalciparum.
Several variants of the glycophorins exist and the biochemistry and, where
known, the molecular mechanisms by which these arise is reviewed.
Experimental work is carried out to establish the growth characteristics of
Pfalciparum in an in vitro culture system using cells with glycophorin variants
on their membranes. Three such variants were compared to normal cells and
two (S~s-U-and Dantu) were found to be partially resistant to invasion by
Pfalciparum merozoites whereas the third (Henshaw) was found to be no
different to controls. / MT2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/23781 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Field, Stephen Paul |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (105 leaves), application/pdf |
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