Full Length Research Paper

Immunoglobulin profile of Nigerian children with Plasmodium falciparum infection

Nmorsi, O. P. G.¹* Ukwandu, N. C. D.², Isaac, C.¹, Ekoma, N. E, Asibor, V.¹

¹Tropical Diseases Research Unit, Department of Zoology, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria.

²Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: nmorsiopg@yahoo.com.

Accepted 25 October, 2007

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.

Key words: IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG, IgM, Plasmodium falciparum, children, Nigeria.