Stereologic techniques in microscopy

SYNOPSIS The principal measuring methods employed in morphometry, generally known as stereology, allow information on volumes, surface areas, numbers of structures, and many other dimensions to be derived from simple counting operations. Until relatively recently these techniques have found only limited application in biology, although they have been used for many years in the inorganic sciences. With the development of reliable quantitative methods in physiology and biochemistry, however, stereologic techniques are becoming increasingly important and a number of interesting methods have been developed which are both rapid and simple. In this paper a number of practical techniques are presented which have proved useful in light and electron microscopy.