Figure 7. Hemozoin impairs dendritic functions via cell-intrinsic NLRP3 activity.

(A) Experimental design for samples depicted in (B)–(I) from C57BL/6 (WT) and NLRP3^−/− (KO) mice infected with P. yoelii 17XNL parasites.

(B and C) Summary CD11b^negCD8α⁺ cDC1 frequency (B) and number (C) in WT and NLRP3 KO mice.

(D) Histogram and summary of MHC II expression in CD8α⁺ cDC1.

(E) Histograms of bead uptake, summary graph of the frequency of bead positive CD8α⁺ cDC1 (center), and gMFI of phagocytosed beads (right).

(F and G) Flow plots (F) and summary (G) of DQ-OVA antigen processing assay. The frequency of CD11b^negCD8α⁺ cDC1 in each quadrant is depicted.

(H and I) Flow plots (H) and number (I) of CD150^loCXCR5^int T_FH among parasite-specific (left) and polyclonal (right) CD4 T cells on day 6 p.i.

(J) Experimental schematic for C57BL/6:NLRP3^−/− (50:50) bone-marrow chimera generation.

(K) Ratio of CD11b⁺CD8α^neg cDC2 and CD11b^negCD8α⁺ cDC1 recovered from chimeras on d11 p.i.

(L and M) Histograms and quantification of MHC II expression by total cDC and CD11b^negCD8α⁺ cDC1.

(N) Flow plots of bead uptake (left), summarized frequency of fluorescent bead⁺ CD11b^negCD8α⁺ cDC1 (center), and gMFI of fluorescent beads are quantified (right).

(O) DQ-OVA antigen-processing assay.

(P) The frequency of CD11b^negCD8α⁺ cDC1 in each quadrant is quantified.

(Q) C57BL/6 (WT) mice were administered either MCC950 or PBS i.p. during the first 6 days of infection, and bone marrow was collected on day 28 for quantification of MSP₁₉ LLPC via ELISPOT.

(R and S) Representative ELISPOT photos (R) and summary data (S).

Data (mean ± SD) in (A)–(I) and (Q)–(S) are representative of two independent experiments with n = 5. Data (mean ± SD) in (K)–(P) are the summary data collected from two independent experiments (see also Figure S6).