P. falciparum causes the most severe form of malaria in younger children and pregnant women. In vitro culture systems allow researchers to understand parasite biology, elucidate mechanism of host immunity and test efficacy of antimalarial agents or vaccines in preclinical studies. Most laboratory-adapted parasite strains predate the emergence of artemisinin-based drug combinations and mainly originate from Asia or Europe. To fully understand the biochemical and phenotypic characteristics of parasites, it is imperative that researchers are able to culture parasites circulating in an area to unravel any geographical differences at the population level. Ex vivo culturing of clinical isolates can be challenging when collecting samples in the field and requires technical expertise and equipment. To overcome this challenge, clinical isolates are cryopreserved in the field and transported to a laboratory for in vitro studies. In this protocol, we describe different methods of cryopreserving P. falciparum isolates in the field and thawing them for subsequent in vitro culture.
【저자키워드】 cryopreservation, P. falciparum, clinical isolate, Field isolate, Glycerolyte, Snap freezing, Thawing parasites,