Antibody to intermediate filaments of the cytoskeleton in the sera of patients with acute malaria.

Sera from 78 patients with acute malaria were tested for antibodies to intermediate filaments (IFs) by indirect immunofluorescence. Eighty-two per cent of the sera contained antibody which stained the IFs in human fetal skin fibroblasts and/or HEp2 cells. In contrast, only 8% of sera taken from blood donors gave weak positive staining of IFs and no staining was observed with 42 myeloma sera which were also tested as controls. In most cases autoantibodies were of the IgM class. Erythrocytes parasitized with Plasmodium falciparum failed to stain when reacted with non-malarial anti-IF antibody positive serum.