In Vitro Cultivation of Plasmodium falciparum *

Abstract

Sixteen in vitro cultivation experiments were conducted with Plasmodium falciparum (five with blood from patients and 11 with blood from the night monkey, Aotus trivirgatus). In all of the experiments the parasites could be seen to go through their erythrocytic cycle and to invade other red blood cells, but multiplication was usually not significant. When the perfusion-jar technique was used, a definite twofold increase in parasites was observed at the end of 48 hours' incubation. We also educed quantitative data on the parasitemia, differential stages of the parasites, degenerate and extracellular parasites, and glucose utilization.