title: The use of 5-fluorocytosine and ketoconazole in the culture of the erythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum and some tumor cell lines.
abstract: In vitro culture systems are often contaminated by bacteria and fungi. It is therefore often necessary to supplement culture media with agents such as penicillin/streptomycin, gentamycin or amphotericin B. The latter cannot be used in the in vitro culture of erythrocytic stages of P. falciparum, and thus anti-fungal agents have not been regularly used in this system. We describe the prophylactic use of 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) and ketoconazole (KTZ) in tissue cultures at concentrations up to 300 and 10 micrograms/ml respectively which have no effect on the growth of P. falciparum (FCR-3 strain). A melanoma cell line (C32) and a line of uterine carcinoma (C41) were also unaffected by similar concentrations of 5-FC and KTZ. When dissolved in complete culture medium (RPMI 1640) with 10% human plasma, the minimum inhibitory concentration of 5-FC for a susceptible strain of Candida remained below 2 micrograms/ml. These experiments suggest that 5-FC (at 50 micrograms/ml) alone or in combination with KTZ (at 1 microgram/ml) is a useful addition to the armamentarium of antimicrobials available to the tissue culture biologist for a variety of cell culture systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York 10467.
authors.forename: E F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: McKitrick
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Herz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000469:parasitology*; D005260:Female; D005437:Flucytosine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007654:Ketoconazole / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008545:Melanoma; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects*; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms
chemical_list: D005437:Flucytosine; D007654:Ketoconazole