A cultivation method for growing bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei to higher cell density and for longer time

A novel cultivation technique using transwells allowing the growth of bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei for longer periods of time and to higher cell densities is described. Trypanosomes cultured in transwells placed in cups of tissue culture plates containing 6-fold excess of medium grew within 4 days to maximum cell densities of 2 × 107 parasites per ml. Compared to control cultures, the exponential growth of trypanosomes was one day longer and the maximum cell concentration was increased 4-fold. The new culture system may be useful in drug screening assays and analysing the T. brucei secretome.