Hepatic Dysfunctions in Malaria-Infected Children: Analyzing the Impact of Plasmodium falciparum on the Liver Function Parameters in Sub-Saharan Africa

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Biochemistry/Chemistry, Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria.

2 Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated hepatic dysfunctions in children courtesy of malaria infection. Liver function parameters of the infected and non-infected individuals were determined and compared. Serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) were determined by the method described by Reitman and Frankel. Biuret method was used to estimate the serum total protein (TP) and Bromocresol green method was used to estimate the serum albumin (ALB). The concentrations of both AST and ALT of the test subjects were significantly higher (p<0.05) when compared with the control groups. There were also some differences between the concentrations of both AST and ALT of female and male patients. The results of the study further show that children between the ages of 0-5 years were more impacted compared to those at the ages of 6-12 years. There were low levels of total protein and albumin in the infected children compared to non-infected children. The study reveals that malaria parasites were shown to make some damages to the liver cells of the infected individuals by increasing the plasma concentrations of ALT and AST and decreasing the hepatic synthesis of proteins and albumin. Findings of this study may be used to make effective intervention and elimination against malaria parasites especially in children living in malaria endemic regions.

Keywords

Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences. C, Physiology and Molecular Biology
Volume 17, Issue 2
December 2025
Pages 15-23

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