Cultivation of Plasmodium falciparum isolates under the Anaeropack® gas condition in a portable thermostatic incubator.

Abstract

gen at a low concentration (WHO, 1977). Now, the gas condition can be adjusted automatically in an ordinary CO2 incubator (Waki et al ., 1984) or a computerized mixed-gas incubator (Takagi and Waki, 1987; Trager, 1990). Although an incubation system can be easily maintained in a relatively sophisticated laboratory, it is not always an appropriate technology to transfer to the field. The AnaeroPack(R)_ Malaria Culture System (SUGIYAMA-GEN Co., Ltd., Tokyo) was devised as a portable cultivation system in which the proper conditions for growing P. falciparum parasites can be maintained in a sealed jar. Culture-adapted strains of P. falciparum have been reported to grow nicely in systems that use such gas generators as the AnaeroPack(R)•ECampylo