Figure 3

Effect of IL-10R blockade on the relationship between virulence and asexual parasite density. Virulence, as measured in terms of mortality rate (1/day of death), is plotted against maximum parasite density for each of 8 parasite genotypes in αIL-10R (filled symbols) versus IgG control (open symbols) treated mice. Pearson correlation analyses revealed a significant negative relationship between virulence and asexual parasite density when IL-10R was blocked, but not in control mice. This suggests that the αIL-10R-driven increase in mortality was caused by uncontrolled inflammatory responses, and not increases in parasite load. Indeed, the same pro-inflammatory molecules that kill parasites also kill hosts [29]. Each large symbol represents the mean of five mice (± S.E) and small symbols represent individual mice.