Figure 3. A schistosomula titration series reveals the optimal number of parasites to be used for PI and FDA fluorescent detection in both 96-well and 384-well microtiter plates.

Mechanically-transformed schistosomula were cultured for 24 hr, heat killed (dead) or left untreated (live) and stained with either PI (dead parasites) or FDA (live parasites). (A) Dead schistosomula were titrated from 5000 to 36 parasites per well (in triplicate) in a 96-well microtiter plate and PI fluorescence (544 nm) obtained at 20 min, (B) Dead schistosomula were titrated from 1000 to 8 parasites per well (in triplicate) in a 384-well microtiter plate and PI fluorescence (544 nm) obtained at 20 min, (C) Untreated, live schistosomula were titrated from 5000 to 36 parasites per well (in triplicate) in a 96-well microtiter plate and FDA fluorescence (485 nm) measured at 5 min, (D) Untreated, live schistosomula were titrated from 1000 to 8 parasites per well (in triplicate) in a 384-well microtiter plate and FDA fluorescence (485 nm) measured at 5 min. All fluorescent readings were collected from a BMG Labtech Polarstar Omega microtiter plate reader. These results are representative of two independent experiments.