Abstract
A morphometric method for the analysis of the germinal centers in the chicken spleen is presented. Based on counts in the 2-dimensional tissue sections, the following 3-dimensional germinal center characteristics were calculated: volume density (VVgc); numerical density (NVgc); total number in the spleen (Ngcsp); nearest neighbor distance (.DELTA.3) and mean diameter (.hivin.D). The total number of the germinal centers in the spleen of the 6-wk-old and 10-wk-old unimmunized chickens was 803 and 642, respectively. The mean diameter of the germinal centers was 102-108 .mu.m, but its size distribution ranged 50-175 .mu.m.