Cultivation techniques for the erythrocytic stages of malaria parasites.

The study of the biochemistry, physiology, and immunology of plasmodia has been restricted by the difficulty of maintaining the parasites in isolation from the host. Some success has been achieved in cultivating them in vitro, using tissue cultures and chick embryo techniques to study exoerythrocytic states and the sporogonic cycle, but no completely successful method has been found for studying the asexual and sexual stages of plasmodia in circulating red blood cells. The relative slowness with which techniques for continuous in vitro cultivation have been developed is the result of inadequate knowledge of the biochemistry of the parasites and of the blood and its constituents.