Counting chambers & haemocytometers

Choose by how dense your sample is. For cell culture and blood cells, the Neubauer improved chamber and the Bürker chamber are the usual choices; both have a chamber depth of 0.1 mm. For samples with few cells, such as cerebrospinal fluid, a deeper chamber counts a larger volume: the Fuchs-Rosenthal chamber is 0.2 mm deep. The Nageotte chamber, at 0.5 mm, is meant for very low cell counts. Follow the chamber type your method or SOP names, so your calculation factor stays correct. Questions: sales@luminixhealth.com.

It is about how well you see the grid. On a bright-line chamber, the ruling stands out clearly against the background in brightfield, which makes counting less tiring, especially for longer series. A dark-line chamber shows the grid as dark lines; some users find it easier with certain stains or optics. Both types are available with the same ruling and depth, for example the Neubauer chamber with bright line and the Neubauer chamber with dark line, each with a V-groove for loading. If your microscope set-up is standard brightfield, bright-line is the common choice.

A glass chamber lasts for years when you clean it carefully, and it is the reference in many SOPs. It suits labs that count regularly and want a fixed, traceable instrument. A disposable plastic chamber needs no cleaning and avoids carry-over between samples, which helps with infectious material or high throughput. The disposable Neubauer improved counting chamber comes in packs of 50 pieces. Many labs keep a glass chamber, such as the Neubauer improved chamber, as the reference and use disposables for routine counts.

A counting chamber needs its own cover glass. It is thicker and flatter than a standard microscope cover slip, so it sets the chamber depth correctly and does not bend over the ridges. Most chambers here, such as the Neubauer improved chamber, come with two cover glasses of 0.4 mm thickness. An ordinary thin cover slip gives a wrong volume and therefore a wrong count. For other microscopy work, standard cover slips and slides are in microscope slides and cover glasses. Spare ones are available too, such as the haemocytometer cover glass, 20 × 26 × 0.4 mm.

A counting chamber is a slide with a ruled grid of known depth, so cells in a volume can be counted under a microscope. A haemocytometer is that chamber for blood or for cultured cells. The depth and the ruling are the specification. A scratched grid miscounts.

A light microscope forms an image with glass lenses and transmitted or reflected light. A stereo microscope is the lower-magnification instrument for dissecting and for looking at a surface. Fluorescence needs a light source and filters matched to the dye. Histology is the preparation that makes a tissue readable: fixation, a cassette, a section, a stain. The objective's magnification and numerical aperture decide the resolution. The slide and the cover glass decide whether the section sits in the focal plane. Stains and dyes as substances are identified on PubChem. Papers on the methods are on PubMed.

This shelf belongs to Microscopy & histology, inside Lab instruments. Luminix Health distributes this range for laboratory use.

The neighbouring shelves are Microscope slides & cover glasses, Microscope objectives, eyepieces & optics, Histology cassettes & moulds, Stereo microscopes, Light & fluorescence microscopes, Histology reagents & consumables, Microscopy accessories, Cold light sources & lighting and Digital & USB microscopes. The category above this shelf is Microscopy & histology.

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