An easy and economical method to prepare cells for cytologic analyses.

A crucial step in any cytology application begins with the placement of cells on slides in a manner that provides good preservation of cell morphology. Commercial cytocentrifuges are the most commonly used devices for this purpose. However, there are instances when these devices are either not available or not applicable. We devised an easy and economical alternative method to prepare cells for cytologic analysis. The device (cytograv) was easily assembled from common laboratory and office supplies, and produced cell preparations of similar quality as those produced with a cytocentrifuge (cytospin-3). Cellular analyses of biological fluids is one of the most common applications for these kinds of devices. The cytograv device was successfully employed in the identification and verification of a PMN isolation procedure from whole blood. The cytograv device was also successfully used to quantitative increases in the number of PMNs in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid recovered from mice treated with increasing doses of paraquat. These two examples illustrate some of the many possible uses of the cytograv device to provide high-quality preparations for cytologic analyses.