Discriminative Enumeration of Mixed Anisometric Cell Populations By an Electronic Counter.

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Abstract
Discussion and conclusions The results presented above show that the selective counting of one or the other of 2 cell types, differing with respect to volume present in the same suspension, is possible with the aid of an electronic counter. This is accomplished by electronically screening out smaller or larger cells from the desired counting interval. From knowledge of the proportion of cells expected to be present within the limits of that counting interval, the total number of cells of a particular type present can be computed. The applicability of this discriminative counting procedure depends in large part on sufficient volume differences among the cell populations present. In the event the cell volumes closely overlap when present as mixtures the counter would be unable to resolve them into distinct populations. In the present studies, a tissue culture line of Lewis rat tumor cells having a size distribution of 12.5–24 μ in diameter could be selectively counted when present in suspensions containing a high (100:1) multiplicity of lymphoid cells having a diameter of 6–15 μ. The same was true of L cells present (diameter = 14.0–24 μ) in mixtures with mouse lymph node cells (diameter = 6–15 μ).