Cell Counting Microscope

A hemocytometer consists of a thick glass microscope slide with a grid of perpendicular lines etched in the middle.

Cell counting microscope.

If using a glass hemocytometer very gently fill both chambers underneath the coverslip allowing the cell suspension to be drawn out by capillary action. Cells are the basic units of life and contain cytoplasm dna ribosomes and a cell membrane. In that case you will need to multiply your final. 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. 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. Again multiply by 1000 to determine cell count per ml 250 000. A variety of cell counting methods exist for exactly this purpose including the hemocytometer.

Sometimes you will need to dilute a cell suspension to get the cell density low enough for counting. The charged counting chamber is then placed on the microscope stage and the counting grid is brought into focus at low power. A counting chamber is a microscope slide that is especially designed to enable cell counting.