The use of murine feeder cells in the cultivation of Plasmodium falciparum asexual blood stages.

Increased multiplication rates were observed in asexual erythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum grown in the presence of a feeder-cell layer of mouse peritoneal wash cells (PWCs) using the candle-jar method of Trager and Jensen (1977). This held true for both new and established isolates of the parasite. When the PWC population was separated into adherent and non-adherent fractions, the adherent PWC population promoted an increase in parasite growth but the non-adherent population did not. An increase in parasite multiplication was not promoted by PWC-conditioned medium.