Cultivation of Plasmodium falciparum in commercially available sera depleted of natural antibodies reactive with human erythrocytes.

The efficacy of commercially available sera for the continuous in vitro cultivation of Plasmodium falciparum is controversial. In this study, various commercial animal and human sera are shown to support the in vitro growth of P. falciparum after their adsorption with erythrocytes to remove "natural" anti-human erythrocyte antibodies. A simple and inexpensive method to accomplish cultivation is presented.