Automated analysis of autoradiographic grains density with scanning microspectrophotometer

The mouse ascites tumour cells were used as the specimen, and 3H-thymidine was used as the tracer. The smears were treated without staining or with Eosin or Giemsa-Wright staining. The automatic analysis of autoradiographic silver grains was performed with UNIVAR-MSPM. The relationship between integrated optical density (IOD) and silver grain density (SGD) in cell nuclei was studied. The results showed that the IOD could reflect the SGD basically, the correlation coefficients being 0.922, 0.9118 and 0.6218. Since the G-W stained cell nuclei appeared blue, their IOD was influenced strongly, whereas the Eosin stained cell nuclei appeared light red, their IOD was influenced only slightly. The latter was recommended. This method could be used for studying the DNA synthesis and cell proliferating kinetics