Numerous procedures in biology and medicine require the counting of cells. On most occasions it is actually the concentration of the cells which is required (for example: 5,000 cells per milliliter). By counting the cells in a known volume of culture the concentration can be mediated.
A counting chamber, also known as hemocytometer, is a microscope slide that is especially designed to enable cell counting. The slide has a sink in its middle; the area of the sink is marked with a grid. A drop of a cell culture is placed in the sink. Looking at the sample under the microscope, the researcher uses the grid to manually count the number of cells in a certain area. The depth of the sink is predefined, thus the volume of the counted culture can be calculated and with it the concentration of the cells.
Counting chambers are often used in clinical blood counts. Their advantage is being cheap and fast; this makes them the preferred counting method in fast biological experiments in which it needs to be merely determined whether a cell culture has grown as expected. Usually the culture examined needs to be diluted, otherwise the high density of cells would make counting impossible. The need for dilution is a disadvantage, as every dilution adds inaccuracy to the measurement
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Germany
Netherlands
Netherlands
Germany
Germany
Netherlands
Germany
Germany
Netherlands
Germany
Germany
Germany