Dendritic Cells and Their Multiple Roles during Malaria Infection

Figure 2

Plasmodium infection activates different DCs subsets. Infection with different stages of Plasmodium activates DCs that in turn start producing proinflammatory (IL-6, IL-12, and TNFα) but also regulatory (IL-10) cytokines. The CD8α⁺CD11b⁻ DCs are responsible for priming CD8⁺ T cell responses against intrahepatic forms, while both cDCs subsets (CD8α⁺CD11b⁻ and CD8α⁺CD11b⁺) play a role in the activation of CD4⁺ T cell responses that can lead to an inflammatory or regulatory outcome, depending on the timing of infection. pDCs also play a role in the induction of a more regulatory CD4⁺ T cell response. The number of BAFF expressing DCs is reduced during Plasmodium infection, and that may reduce their ability to support B cell differentiation directly. Based on [69, 70, 78–80, 82, 85, 86, 91].