Plasmodium berghei in the Placenta of Mice and Rats: Transmission of Specific Immunity from Mother Rats to Litters

Abstract

THE problem of transplacental transmission of Plasmodium berghei from mother mice and rats to their litter was investigated by infecting gravid animals during the week preceding parturition. 22 white mice and 12 albino rats were inoculated intravenously with a standard dose of 10⁶ parasites per 100 gm. weight of the animal. All mice died within an average of 12.4 days after the infection. Ten rats survived the infection and developed a consequent immunity. 15 mother mice lived long enough to deliver ; two of which produced stillborn litters while 13 delivered normally. All live-born baby mice were free from infection at the time of birth, and when nursed by foster mothers remained healthy and developed normally for more than two months. The stillborn mice showed no parasites on direct smears, and sub-inoculations from them were negative; but they had an accumulation of pigment in the liver. This pigment (giving a negative histochemical test for iron) might have been produced as a result of a fatal in-tra-uterine infection.