Fig. 5
Ferritin deletion led to iron elevation in the reticulocyte and rescue of PyDMT1 hypomorph. a Plasma free iron of Fthfl/fl (N = 3) and FthR26△/△ mice (N = 3, t-test, *P < 0.05). b Free iron in the red blood cell of Fthfl/fl (N = 4) and FthR26△/△ (N = 4). c Ferritin in the red blood cell of Fthfl/fl (N = 5) and FthR26△/△ (N = 5). d Gating strategy applied to separate parasites infected reticulocytes and infected red blood cell. APC indicates TER-119-APC in X-axis, PE represents CD71-PE in Y-axis. Hoechst33342 (PB450A) to select parasites positive cell when parasitemia is up to 1%. TER-119-APC was used to label erythrocyte; CD71-PE was used to separate infected reticulocytes (iRET) and infected red blood cell (iRBC) with 1–2µL blood. e Cell count of iRET and iRBC (N = 4, t-test, **P < 0.01, *P < 0.05). f Gating strategy applied to select for reticulocytes by flow cytometry. TER-119-APC to separate erythrocyte and non-erythrocyte with 1µL blood, CD71-PE to select reticulocytes in TER-119-APC positive cell. g The LIP of reticulocytes from Fthfl/fl (N = 5) and FthR26△/△ mice (N = 5, t-test, ***P < 0.001). h A proposed model of PyDMT1 action. PyDMT1 reduction leads to iron deficiency, decreasing the number of merozoites in each schizont. Ferritin knockout elevates the intracellular iron of reticulocytes, conferring a rescue on the PyDMT1 hypomorph parasite