Table 1.

Characteristics of in vitro sporozoite culturing systems for Plasmodium gallinaceum, falciparum, berghei and yoelli.

Plasmodium species (reference)	Oocyst /SPZ culture conditions	Basal lamina requirement	Oocyst diameter	Ookinete to oocyst conversion in vitro (early or mature)	SPZ days observed	SPZ characterization
				in vivo provided for comparison
P. gallinaceum	Drosophila cells required	Matrigel	Day 3–7 mm for elongate	10–30% (mature)	Days 10 to 22 peaking on Day 16	Morphology with anti-CSP staining
(51)	In RPMI media		Days 5 to 7–up to 30 mm for spherical and up to 40 mm for elongated	1–21* (53)
P. falciparum	Drosophila cells required	Matrigel	Day 7–15 to 20 mm	N.D.	Days 12 to 16	Morphology with anti-CSP staining
(52)	In RPMI media		Days 10 to 12–25 to 40 mm	0.4–1.3%* (54)
P. berghei	Drosophila cells required	Matrigel	Day 15–up to 40 mm	68% (mature)	Days 15 to 28	Morphology with Giemsa staining; Infectivity in
(49)	In Schneider's media			0–18%* (53)		hepatocytes of mice observed with subsequent blood stage transition and then mosquito infection
P. yoelii	Drosophila cells or conditioned media required	Matrigel not required	Day 3–4 mm	7.1% (early)	Days 6 to 30	Morphology with anti-CSP staining; Infectivity of primary mouse hepatocytes and
(50)	In Scheider's media		Days 6 to 7–10 mm	0–75%* (55)		hepatocytes of mice observed with subsequent blood stage transition

The features, including culture conditions, parasites observed, conversion frequency from ookinete to oocyst, and details of SPZ characterization are outlined and compared between culturing systems. For oocyst diameter, the observed oocysts were spherical unless otherwise noted. N.D, not described; RPMI, Roswell Park Memorial Institute.

^*The range is due to differences in Anopheles mosquito species tested.