One-step concentration of malarial parasite-infected red blood cells and removal of contaminating white blood cells

Table 1 Numbers of total cells and PRBCs purified by three methods.

Purification method	No. of total cells (cells/μl)	No. of PRBCs (PRBCs/μl)	Percentage of PRBCs to total cells
Percoll	36,550	34,546	97
Nycodenz	54,750	49,275	90
Magnetic	54,500	53,410	98

The erythrocyte suspension (10%) was prepared from 0.8 ml of blood infected with malarial parasite (5–10% parasitaemia) as described in Materials and Methods. Three ml of 10% erythrocyte suspension was withdrawn, divided into three equal parts (1 ml each), and used in the three methods to concentrate PRBCs. After purification, the PRBC-enriched samples were suspended in 1 ml PBS. The numbers of total cells after concentration were recorded using a haemocytometer, and the number of PRBCs were determined by Field's stain. The results are representative of 3 different infected blood samples.

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