[A graphical method for the correction of nuclear volume fraction and specific surface area of the cell membrane from random nucleated sections of cells].

An empirical graphical method is described for the correction of the nuclear volume fraction and the specific cell surface area after stereological estimations on nuclear-biased samples of cell profiles. The method is basing on the assumption that from equatioral sections of representative cells of a given population informations can be obtained about the volume relations and surface relations of tme fraction and the specific cell surface area after stereological estimations on nuclear-biased samples of cell profiles. The method is basing on the assumption that from equatioral sections of representative cells of a given population informations can be obtained about the volume relations and surface relations of tme fraction and the specific cell surface area after stereological estimations on nuclear-biased samples of cell profiles. The method is basing on the assumption that from equatioral sections of representative cells of a given population informations can be obtained about the volume relations and surface relations of the (analysed) "cell stumps" containing nuclear profiles and the "cell caps" lacking nuclear profiles (which were excluded from the stereological estimation). Prerequisites for the application of the method are an approximately spherical shape of the basic cell body and the geometrical similarity of eventually occuring size classes of the cells. The graphical method was checked on peritoneal macrophages and lymphocytes as well as on corresponding cell model systems. The results have been compared with mathematical methods derived from sphere-in-sphere geometrical models. The graphical methods gave results generally comparable to those from methematical methods. Provided that the shape and position of the nucleus inside the cell as well as the structure of the cell surface showed considerable differences to the geometrical models underlying the mathematical corrections, the graphical method was superior, and should be favoured in such cases. On ideal sphere-in-sphere models, the mathematical methods derived from those models should be applied.