Stereological correction procedures for estimating true volume proportions from biased samples

Abstract

SUMMARY Experimental evaluation of component volume proportions may require the introduction of a component‐biased sampling approach in order to facilitate the unequivocal identification of cell type. Such is certainly the case for macrophages, neurons and cells of the lymphocyte‐plasma cell family. With these systems, mathematical corrections are necessary so that reliable morphometric information can be computed from the biased data. The type of correction procedure adopted will depend, to some extent, on the spatial relationships between the component of interest (nucleus, nucleolus) and its containing volume (cell, nucleus). In this communication, correction formulae for the special cases of spatial concentricity and eccentricity are derived. Their usefulness is illustrated by application to a number of well‐known model systems, and a reference table for obtaining the appropriate true volume proportion from observed (biased) data is provided. The reliability of the component‐biased morphometric approach is thereby increased.