Imaging and quantitative analysis of tritium-labelled cells in lymphocyte proliferation assays using microchannel plate detectors originally developed for X-ray astronomy.

Microchannel plate detectors have been used in many astronomical X-ray telescopes. Recently we have begun to use similar detectors to image electron emission from radiolabelled biological assays. Here we show how a microchannel plate (MCP) detector can be used to image tritium uptake in T lymphocyte proliferation assays. Quantitative analysis using the MCP detector has the same sensitivity and speed as conventional liquid scintillation counter (LSC) analysis whilst obviating the need for scintillation fluid. In addition the system permits the imaging of whole plate harvests from a range of plate sizes. Here we present data obtained with 96-well plates and Terasaki plates.