Title: In Vitro Cultivation of Plasmodium Falciparum at High Parasitemia *
Abstract: For the routine in vitro cultivation of Plasmodium falciparum, the initial parasitemia is usually adjusted to 1% to 2%. Large quantities of parasites in mature stages are desirable for most biochemical studies. Since only ring stages of the parasites normally appear in the peripheral blood of P. falciparum-infected Aotus monkeys, we have attempted to culture large quantities of parasites to older stages by a modification of the usual in vitro culture methods employed in this laboratory. This modification involves: 1) using moderately high parasitemia in the starting material; 2) addition of TES (N-tris[hydroxymethyl]methyl-2-aminoethansulfonic acid) as a supplementary buffer in our modified Harvard medium; 3) increasing the ratio of blood to culture medium from 1:9 to 1:18; and 4) using 250- and 500-ml flasks as culture vessels. The results obtained in a series of experiments using the modified technique indicate that we can produce mature stages of P. falciparum with parasitemia as high as 75%.
Publication Year: 1974
Publication Date: 1974-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 12
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