Hepatocytes as feeder-layers for in vitro cultivation of Plasmodium falciparum blood-stages

To improve the in vitro growth of Plasmodium falciparum we attempted to cultivate its erythrocytic stages on monolayers of functionally active hepatocytes. Hepatocytes from Swiss Albino mice were isolated by perfusing the liver with a collagenase solution and were co-cultured with a liver epithelial cell type in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% human umbilical cord serum. The results show that the presence of hepatocytes improves both the multiplication rates of three strains of P. falciparum already in cultivation and the proliferation of freshly isolated strains. Of nine primary isolates tested, only three could be adapted in the standard conditions, whereas all grew readily in the presence of hepatocytes. After two to three weeks of culture with feeder cells, all the strains could be maintained continuously in standard conditions. Similar results were obtained using hepatocytes from another rodent species. Growth was also improved using the supernatant from hepatocyte cultures. No improvement resulted from the use of two human hepatoma cell lines, one rat hepatoma, human embryonic lung fibroblasts, human liver fibroblasts and rat liver epithelial cells as feeder layers. From these results it appears that better culture media can be designed and that the effect of hepatocytes is probably related to the specific functions exhibited by these cells. Hepatocytes may act either by removing toxic substances, particularly lactic acid in the Krebs and Cori cycles, and/or supplying nutrients essential to the parasite.