Cell Counting Microscope

A variety of cell counting methods exist for exactly this purpose including the hemocytometer.

Cell counting microscope.

A hemocytometer consists of a thick glass microscope slide with a grid of perpendicular lines etched in the middle. When using a light microscope to examine living cells you may want to calculate the cell density. 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.

The charged counting chamber is then placed on the microscope stage and the counting grid is brought into focus at low power. 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. In that case you will need to multiply your final. Again multiply by 1000 to determine cell count per ml 250 000.

A counting chamber is a microscope slide that is especially designed to enable cell counting. Sometimes you will need to dilute a cell suspension to get the cell density low enough for counting. A drop of cell culture is placed in the space between the chamber and the glass cover.