Summary Electron micrographs of macrophages within pellets of rat peritoneal exudate cells were analysed by the morphometric point‐counting technique to compare the volumetric and surface‐to‐volume parameters obtained by two distinct sampling procedures. The distinction between the two sampling procedures was dependent upon the nature of the cell profile recorded on the micrographs. The two types of profile compared were (1) equatorial profiles (each containing a substantial nuclear component to facilitate cell identification) and (2) mixed profiles (a random mixture of equatorial profiles, anucleate profiles and cell profile fragments). Exudate cells were obtained from normal animals and from animals stimulated 5 days previously by a single intraperitoneal injection of Freund's Complete Adjuvant in Hank's solution. Volumetric data for intracyto‐plasmic organelles were found to be in excellent agreement when the two sampling procedures were compared. In addition, the results gave satisfactory consistency for the recorded decrease in the surface‐to‐volume estimate of the stimulated macrophage. It is concluded that equatorial profile analysis, in which cell identification is facilitated by virtue of the presence of the nucleus, is suitable for comparative morphometric cytology in the present study and that the biased sampling procedure may have a wide applicability.
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Mayhew et al. (1971) studied this question.
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