Figure 2

Donor parasites in recipient mice.

(a) Once in the host, donor RBCs with GFP^pos parasites can be removed from the peripheral circulation of the host by parasite sequestration, host clearance of parasites, or parasite rupture (once the parasite reaches maturity). The donor (DDAO-SE^pos) RBCs infected with donor (GFP^pos) parasites that survive in the host until rupture release GFP^pos merozoites that are able to infect other susceptible target red blood cells. The uninfected target cells are predominately endogenous (recipient) RBCs, but there is a small portion (~1%) of uninfected donor RBCs. (b) Shows the percentage of total cells that are infected with donor parasites. This is the sum of: (c) the percentage of total cells that are recipient red blood cells and are infected with GFP^pos parasites; (d) and the percentage of total cells that are donor cells and infected with GFP^pos parasites. In (b) – (d) each color represents one mouse in each of the two groups. The circles and dashed lines indicate the observed % of total cells in each category. The solid lines in (d) are the results of fitting the model of parasite clearance (with age-independent clearance) to each of the mice, estimating the clearance rate for each mouse. (e) Shows a boxplot of the estimated clearance rates, of parasites for the naïve and acutely infected groups of mice obtained from fitting the model of parasite disappearance in (d). The red bars indicate the median estimate for each group, the blue boxes indicates the 25^th and 75^th percentiles and the black whiskers indicate the range of clearance rate estimates.