An automated large-scale culture system of Plasmodium falciparum using tangential flow filtration for medium change.

Abstract

Asexual stages and mature gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum have been produced in a 500 ml suspension culture system containing 6-10% red cells. Medium change was automated and was accomplished using a tangential flow filtration unit. The rate of multiplication of the parasite (isolate NF 54) was consistently high when compared with static cultures and ranged from 6.4 X to 15.3 X per cycle in 8 experiments. Mature gametocytes were present in up to 2% of red cells in 14-day-old cultures. Only minor modifications would be required to further scale-up the volume of the culture.