Long-term cultivation of Plasmodium falciparum in media with commercial non-serum supplements.

Continuous cultivation of both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum was achieved using a mixture of commercially available serum substitutes. This provides easier standardisation of experimental data and minimises the risk of infection from handling of human serum. In addition, Nutridoma SR and AlbuMAXI are readily available and are biologically defined. Parasites grown in serum-free medium are morphologically and metabolically identical to those cultivated in medium supplemented with 10% human serum.