Murine malaria. I. Measurement of the mean rate of increase in vivo of Plasmodium berghei

Swiss mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with RBC infected with Plasmodium berghei. The moment a certain parasitemia was reached in each individual mouse was estimated by means of linear interpolation. The relationship between latent period and log inoculum was investigated by means of simple linear regression. The slopes of the latent period per log inoculum curves were significantly different using different donor mice inoculated with serial 10-fold dilution of infected RBC and exsanguinated in the same phase of the infection. It could not be demonstrated that the slopes of the regression lines depended on the stage of the disease of the donor mouse.