To my knowledge and in my experience, hydroethidine is the best method for staining Plasmodium. It is a vital dye and gives nice separation of the different asexual stages of the parasite (based on DNA content) and works very well to determine differences in parasite growth rates or to determine arrest points in growth, etc. See Elloso et al, JI, 1996. 157(5), 2096-102 and Shi et al, Am J Trop Med Hyg, 1999, 60:135-41. Hydroethidine staining won't differentiate between host DNA in reticulocytes and parasite DNA, however. Unless the interest is in Plasmodia that prefer to infect reticulocytes, it shouldn't be difficult to differentiate between parasitized cells and retics using this method, as Howard Shapiro has pointed out. Julie Moore, PhD (PLEASE NOTE THAT MY EMAIL ADDRESS HAS CHANGED!) Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases & Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology College of Veterinary Medicine University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 office: 706-542-5789 lab: 706-542-6758 fax: 706-542-0059 email: julmoore@vet.uga.edu
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