Journal of Parasitology Research

Research Article

Comparison and Optimization of Different Methods for the In Vitro Production of Plasmodium falciparum Gametocytes

Table 1

Factors involved in gametocytogenesis studied and corresponding gametocyte production.
NameConditions studiedProtocol% Parasitemia% HematocritStrain% Gametocytemia
Experiment 1Reduction of hematocrit [ 1 ] 0.26 to 33D7-Syn. 0 . 0 8 ± 0 . 0 3
Dd2-Syn. 0 . 1 9 ± 0 . 0 2
Hemoglobin content [ 2 ] 123D7-Syn. 0 . 2 5 ± 0 . 0 9 *
Dd2-Syn. 0 . 2 2 ± 0 . 1 4 *
Decreased asexual parasites [ 𝟑 ] 123D7-Syn. 𝟎 . 𝟑 𝟕 ± 𝟎 . 𝟎 𝟐
Dd2-Syn. 0 . 2 5 ± 0 . 3 0
Experiment 2Decreased asexual parasites [ 𝟑 ] 123D7-Syn. 0 . 4 2 ± 0 . 0 5
0.52Dd2-Syn. 𝟎 . 𝟓 𝟏 ± 𝟎 . 𝟔 𝟏
Decreased asexual parasites [ 3 , 2 ] 123D7-Syn. 0 . 6 0 ± 0 . 2 6 *
Hemoglobin content0.52Dd2-Syn. 1 . 6 4 ± 0 . 2 4 *
Experiment 3Decreased asexual parasites
Different strains		 [ 𝟑 ] 0.523D7-Syn. 0 . 3 4 ± 0 . 0 7
Dd2-Syn. 0 . 4 9 ± 0 . 0 7
FCR3-Syn. 0 . 0 0 ± 0 . 0 0
HB3-Syn. 0 . 0 4 ± 0 . 0 1
W2-Syn. 0 . 2 9 ± 0 . 0 5
NF54-Syn. 𝟎 . 𝟕 𝟓 ± 𝟎 . 𝟐 𝟎
Experiment 4Decreased asexual parasites
Just thawed strains		 [ 𝟑 ] 12NF54 thawed 𝟎 . 𝟗 𝟎 ± 𝟎 . 𝟎 𝟗
W2 thawed 0 . 6 7 ± 0 . 2 4
Experiment 5Decreased asexual parasites [ 3 ] 0.752NF54 thawed 0 . 6 2 ± 0 . 1 0
Decreased asexual parasites + LUE [ 𝟑 , 𝟒 ] NF54 thawed 𝟏 . 𝟎 𝟐 ± 𝟎 . 𝟎 𝟓
Decreased asexual parasites [ 5 ] NF54 thawed 0 . 4 4 ± 0 . 0 6 *
Decreased asexual parasites + LUE [ 5 , 4 ] NF54 thawed 0 . 4 8 ± 0 . 1 9 *
Experiment 6Decreased asexual parasites + LUENew Optimized
Protocol		0.752NF54 thawed 𝟏 . 𝟏 𝟖 ± 𝟎 . 𝟎 𝟕
Footnotes and abbreviations: The percentage of gametocytemia was expressed as a mean and standard deviation of two replicates of three independent experiments ( 𝑃 values of unpaired T-test were calculated using GraphPad Prism). Best production is highlighted in bold. Syn-Synchronized cultures; Thawed-just thawed cultures; *Presence of asexual parasites and gametocytes in the culture. Legend in the protocol column corresponds to protocols [ 1 ] (see [9]), [ 2 ] (see [11]), [ 3 ] (see [7]), [ 4 ] (see [4]), and [ 5 ] (see [8]).