Submicroscopic infection of placenta by Plasmodium produces Th1/Th2 cytokine imbalance, inflammation and hypoxia in women from north-west Colombia

Background A large-scale study was set up in order to study the epidemiology, clinical aspects, and immunopathology of gestational and placental malaria in north-west Colombia. In this region, recent reports using a qPCR technique, confirmed frequencies of infection, by Plasmodium falciparum or Plasmodium vivax, up to 45%. Given the high rates of infection observed both in mother and placenta, a first exploratory study was proposed in order to characterize the effect on the inflammation status, tissue damage and hypoxia in Plasmodium spp. infected placentas.