Effect of KAHRP and PfEMP3 on the membrane shear elastic modulus of red blood cells infected by mature stages of

P falciparum. Membrane shear elastic modulus of normal, uninfected, and parasitized RBCs was measured by micropipette aspiration in 5 (for normal RBCs) to 8 (for uninfected RBCs and PRBCs) separate experiments as described in “Materials and methods.” Different pipettes were used throughout the study, but in each experiment the same pipette was used to measure uninfected RBCs and PRBCs. Normal RBCs were from freshly drawn human venous blood and were suspended in fresh parasite culture medium supplemented with 2% bovine serum albumin. Uninfected RBCs were nonparasitized RBCs from each of the 3 different parasite cultures. Each point represents the shear elastic modulus for an individual RBC. Solid horizontal bars represent the mean of all data in each group. Significant differences between pairs of parasite clones are shown as **(P < .01) and ***(P < .001) by the Mann-Whitney Utest.