Editing Plasmodium falciparum (section)

====Liver stage or exo-erythrocytic schizogony====

Entering the hepatocytes, the parasite loses its [[apical complex]] and surface coat and transforms into a [[trophozoite]]. Within the [[parasitophorous vacuole]] of the hepatocyte, it undergoes 13–14 rounds of mitosis which produce a [[Syncytium|syncytial]] cell ([[coenocyte]]) called a schizont. This process is called schizogony. A schizont contains tens of thousands of nuclei. From the surface of the schizont, tens of thousands of haploid (1n) daughter cells called merozoites emerge. The liver stage can produce up to 90,000 merozoites,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Vaughan|first1=Ashley M.|last2=Kappe|first2=Stefan H.I.|title=Malaria Parasite Liver Infection and Exoerythrocytic Biology|journal=Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine|date=2017|volume=7|issue=6|pages=a025486|doi=10.1101/cshperspect.a025486|pmid=28242785|pmc=5453383}}</ref> which are eventually released into the bloodstream in parasite-filled vesicles called merosomes.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sturm|first1=A.|title=Manipulation of Host Hepatocytes by the Malaria Parasite for Delivery into Liver Sinusoids|journal=Science|date=2006|volume=313|issue=5791|pages=1287–1290|doi=10.1126/science.1129720|pmid=16888102|bibcode=2006Sci...313.1287S|s2cid=22790721|doi-access=free}}</ref>