TNF concentration in fatal cerebral, non-fatal cerebral, and uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Plasma levels of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) were significantly higher in 178 Gambian children with uncomplicated malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum than in 178 children with other illnesses. 110 children with cerebral malaria were studied shortly after admission to hospital; 28 subsequently died. Compared with the children with uncomplicated malaria, mean plasma TNF levels were twice as high in cerebral malaria survivors and ten times as high in the fatal cases. Although high TNF levels were associated with high parasitaemia and with hypoglycaemia, they predicted fatal outcome in cerebral malaria independently of parasitaemia and glucose concentrations. Concentrations of interleukin-1 alpha, but not interferon gamma, were also related to the severity of malaria. We conclude that increased TNF production is a normal host response to P falciparum infection, but that excessive levels of production may predispose to cerebral malaria and a fatal outcome

Stress levels of dominants reflect underlying conflicts with subordinates in a cooperatively breeding species.

16 pagesInternational audienceMaintaining dominance status had long been considered to be less stressful than subordination. However, no consistency in stress levels of dominant and subordinate individuals has been demonstrated. Tactics used to achieve and maintain dominance could be determinant. In cooperatively breeding species, conflicts between dominants and subordinates are expected since dominant individuals tend to monopolize reproduction while subordinates seldom reproduce. Reproductive skew models predict that subordinates’ reproductive opportunities are either allotted or subject to competition with dominants. In the former case, no policing of subordinates by dominants is expected. In the latter, dominant should exert a control over the subordinates possibly leading to higher stress levels in dominants than in subordinates, which could be further elevated as the number of potential competitors in the group increases. In the present study, we aimed to test these hypotheses by assessing individual’s stress level using the neutrophils to lymphocytes ratio (N:L) in a wild cooperatively breeding rodent, the Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota). We found that dominants exhibit higher N:L ratio than subordinates and that dominants’ N:L ratio increases with the number of unrelated same-sex subordinates in the group. We conclude that controlling unrelated subordinates is stressful for dominants, as expected under tug-of-war models. These stress patterns reveal conflicting relationships between dominants and subordinates over the reproduction and social status acquisition. This study highlights the influence of the nature, strength, and direction of conflicts on stress levels