Disector /Physical Fractionator

Stereology
#1

Using the Disector /Physical Fractionator for number counting, what is the criteria to determine:

  1. the section thickness,
  2. the number of section to be cut and
  3. the sampling fraction.
#2

Section thickness should typically be “as thick as you can make your tissue, while still having complete staining penetration”.

The number of sections (section evaluation interval) and area sampling fraction (grid size/counting frame size) will be determined by the difference between your groups.

This is an extremely polarizing topic, but briefly, if you are counting at least 150-200 cells and have a Gundersen (m=1) CE of 0.15 or lower, you are probably fine.

For more information, see this article: https://www.mbfbioscience.com/help/stereo_investigator/Default.htm#Stereology/Foundations/samplingPrecision.htm