title: Plasmodium falciparum cultivation using the Petri Dish: revisiting the effect of the 'age' of erythrocytes and the interval of medium change.
abstract: Differences in the characteristics of the culture conditions can influence the multiplication rate of Plasmodium falciparum. The Petri dish method is one of the most popular methods of cultivating this parasite. In many previous studies, ideal culture conditions of the Petri dish method were achieved by using erythrocytes collected from blood that had been stored for at least 2 weeks, with daily changes of the medium. In the present study, we studied the multiplication rate of P. falciparum in cultures containing erythrocytes of various ages together with changing the medium at various intervals of time. Our results strongly suggest that the rate of in vitro multiplication of P. falciparum was higher in freshly collected erythrocytes than in aged erythrocytes regardless of the anticoagulant and that when the parasitemia is lower than 8% with a hematocrit of 5%, the medium change interval can be as long as 48 hr without a great reduction in the rate of multiplication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Gachon Medical School, Incheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Young A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Je Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.forename: Sun Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Seung Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.forename: Joon Sup
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Yeom
authors.forename: Hyo Il
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Chang Gyun
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ju Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Seoh
authors.forename: Jae Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection; D016922:Cellular Senescence; D003470:Culture Media; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000469:parasitology*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000254:growth & development*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media