Practical stereology of the stomach and intestine.

We provide a practical review of the opportunities made available by design-unbiased stereology to estimate cell number, total volume, mean volume and mean height in the rat stomach using enterochromaffin-like cells as an example. The second example comprises estimation of the surface area of well-defined segments of rat colon and the volumes of different layers following surgery and/or treatment which may result in the atrophy or growth of the colon. The pros and cons of the stereologic designs are discussed and the pitfalls and some solutions to these are elucidated.