Direct and efficient stereological estimation of total cell quantities using electron microscopy.

Stereological estimation of total subcellular quantities in bioscience is presented in this report. Special emphasis is placed on the use of electron microscopy, which under certain circumstances may be combined with light microscopy. Three strategies based on the Cavalieri principle, the disector and local stereological probes through arbitrarily fixed points for estimation of total quantities inside cells are presented. The quantities comprise (total) number, length, surface area, volume or 3D spatial distribution for organelles as well as total amount of gold particles, various compounds or certain cytochemical markers.