Labelling malaria-infected human erythrocytes with Tc-99m

Aim: Malaria is an old and a very common disease, especially in undeveloped countries. The malaria parasites infect the erythrocytes and the aim of this work was to label infected cells for future studies of their distribution and life span. Material and Method: With a commercial kit containing stannous fluoride and sodium medronate, which is used to label erythrocytes in vivo, in vitro and in vivo/vitro methods, we labelled the cells by using a modified method and a small volume, 5 - 50 microlitre, of packed cells. The cells were labelled with Tc-99m in the range of 60 - 1500 MBq. The kit was reconstituted with saline and the pH was adjusted to 7.0. The cells were incubated with 1 ml of the kitsolution in 370C for 5 min. The remaining Sn-ions were reduced by adding NaOCl and then the solution was centrifuged.The supernantant was discarded and the Tc-99m was added to the precipitate and incubated 370C for 20 min and then washed 3 times. This labelling procedure was performed on both infected and on non-infected cells. Results: Ten samples of cells have been labelled. The best labelling result was obtained using 7 - 20 MBq per 10 microlitre of packed cells. The labelling efficiency was, on average, 35%. Conclusion: It is possible to label both infected and non-infected cells in very small volumes. The cells were visually inspected in a microscope and were viable after labelling. Furthermore, the cell distribution was traced in vivo in an animal model by a gamma camera