Cell Counting Microscope

The charged counting chamber is then placed on the microscope stage and the counting grid is brought into focus at low power.

Cell counting microscope.

Sometimes you will need to dilute a cell suspension to get the cell density low enough for counting. Using a pipette take 100 µl of trypan blue treated cell suspension and apply to the hemocytometer. Cells are the basic units of life and contain cytoplasm dna ribosomes and a cell membrane. If using a glass hemocytometer very gently fill both chambers underneath the coverslip allowing the cell suspension to be drawn out by capillary action.

Cell counting is rather straightforward and requires a counting chamber called a hemocytometer a device invented by the 19 th century french anatomist louis charles malassez to perform blood cell counts. A drop of cell culture is placed in the space between the chamber and the glass cover. A variety of cell counting methods exist for exactly this purpose including the hemocytometer. A counting chamber is a microscope slide that is especially designed to enable cell counting.

When using a light microscope to examine living cells you may want to calculate the cell density. Hemocytometers and sedgewick rafter counting chambers are two types of counting chambers. A hemocytometer consists of a thick glass microscope slide with a grid of perpendicular lines etched in the middle.