Origins of the parasitophorous vacuole membrane of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, in human red blood cells

We have attempted to determine whether the parasitophorous vacuole membrane, in which the malaria parasite (merozoite) encapsulates itself when it enters a red blood cell, is derived from the host cell plasma membrane, as the appearance of the invasion process in the electron microscope has been taken to suggest, or from lipid material stored in the merozoite. We have incorporated into the red cell membrane a haptenic phospholipid, phosphatidylethanolamine, containing an NBD (N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl)) group, substituted in the acyl chain, and allowed it to translocate into the inner bilayer leaflet. After invasion of these labelled cells by the parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, immuno-gold electron microscopy was used to follow the distribution of the labelled lipid; this was found to be overwhelmingly in favour of the host cell membrane relative to the parasitophorous vacuole. Merozoites of P. knowlesi were allowed to attach irreversibly to red cells without invasion, using the method of pretreatment with cytochalasin. The region of contact between the merozoite and the host cell membrane was in all cases devoid of the labelled phosphatidylethanolamine. These results lead us to infer that the parasitophorous vacuole membrane is derived wholly or partly from lipid preexisting in the merozoite.