Plasmodium falciparum in culture: improved continuous flow method.

A new design of flow vessel provides a method for continuous culture of P. falciparum in a settled layer of human erythrocytes with a slow flow of culture medium over them. The parasitemia is kept fluctuating from approximately 1%, just after addition of fresh erythrocytes, to approximately 10%, 2 or 3 days later. Each vessel provides each week 3 harvests, each containing approximately 0.6--1 X 10(9) parasites.