Cell Counting Microscope

Sometimes you will need to dilute a cell suspension to get the cell density low enough for counting.

Cell counting microscope.

A counting chamber is a microscope slide that is especially designed to enable cell counting. A hemocytometer consists of a thick glass microscope slide with a grid of perpendicular lines etched in the middle. The hemocytometer has two gridded chambers in its middle which are covered with a special glass slide when counting. If using a glass hemocytometer very gently fill both chambers underneath the coverslip allowing the cell suspension to be drawn out by capillary action.

A drop of cell culture is placed in the space between the chamber and the glass cover. 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. Hemocytometers and sedgewick rafter counting chambers are two types of counting chambers.

Using a pipette take 100 µl of trypan blue treated cell suspension and apply to the hemocytometer. The charged counting chamber is then placed on the microscope stage and the counting grid is brought into focus at low power. In that case you will need to multiply your final.