Cerebral Edema and Cerebral Hemorrhages in Interleukin-10-Deficient Mice Infected with Plasmodium chabaudi

During a Plasmodium chabaudi infection in interleukin-10 (IL-10) knockout mice, there is greater parasite sequestration, more severe cerebral edema, and a high frequency of cerebral hemorrhage compared with infection of C57BL/6 mice. Anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha treatment ameliorated both cerebral edema and hemorrhages, suggesting that proinflammatory responses contributed to cerebral complications in infected IL-10(-/-) mice.