Figure 6.
Predicted effect of intraerythrocytic multiplication factor (IMF) on the degree of anemia in early simulated infections. A, The fraction of simulations for which ΔRBC (the difference between basal RBC count, 5 × 106/µL, prior to infection and the RBC count during infection) exceeds 5 × 104/µL (1% of the basal RBC count) and 2.5 × 105/µL (5% of the basal RBC count) at 10, 12, 14, and 16 days after the beginning of asexual parasite replication (ie, after primary release from the liver). The gray-scale code for IMF is used here as in Figure 5A. B, The fraction of simulations for which ΔRBC exceeds 2.5 × 105/μL in different parts of the parameter space of the model immune response at 14 and 16 days after primary release. The 10 000 simulations done for each IMF are binned by their values of threshold density of merozoites that triggers the response, Th, and maximum killing rate of infected RBCs, χMax. The horizontal extent of the blocks shows the bin size Th, and the vertical extent shows the bin size χMax. Note that 2.5 × 104/µL is 5% of the basal RBC count. Abbreviation: RBC, red blood cell.