Mice chronically fed a high-fat diet are resistant to malaria induced by Plasmodium berghei ANKA

C57BL/6 mice infected with Plasmodium berghei ANKA (PbA) develop neurological symptoms and die 6--7-day post-inoculation in the absence of high parasitemia. The effects of chronic intake of a high-fat diet on this process are largely unknown. In this study, we assessed the effect of a high-fat diet on the host-parasite response to malarial infection. Mice were fed ad libitum with either standard or a high-fat diet for 8 weeks and afterwards were infected with PbA. PbA-infected mice feeding a standard diet presented blood parasitemia, hepatic and cerebral histopathological alterations, and hepatic injury with increased hemozoin deposition in the liver. By contrast, these changes were not observed in the malaria high-fat diet group. In addition, mice fed a high-fat diet did not develop the expected neurological symptoms of cerebral malaria and were resistant to death. Taken together, our results indicate that chronic ingestion of high-fat diet prevents the development of experimental malaria induced by PbA injection, suggesting a relationship between a high-fat diet and malaria, which is an interesting subject for further study in humans.