New TC20™ Automated Cell Counter Facilitates Quick Counting with Precision

Bio-Rad’s new TC20 automated cell counter is compatible with a broad range of cell sizes and types including cell lines, primary cells (from tissue or blood), and stem cells. The TC20 cell counter offers a simple way to count mammalian cells quickly and precisely. Its broad concentration range of 5 x 10⁴–1 x 10⁷ cells/ml eliminates the need to dilute cells prior to counting, thus reducing errors associated with sample dilutions. The counting algorithm successfully discriminates and counts individual cells within clusters of up to five cells, eliminating the need to extensively declump cells prior to loading. Using its built-in autofocus technology and sophisticated cell counting algorithm, the TC20 cell counter delivers reliable cell counts in 30 seconds.

Benefits of the TC20 cell counter include:

• Accurate and reproducible results – the innovative auto-focus technology removes the variation associated with manual focusing and leads to accurate and precise cell counting. The counting algorithm automatically identifies cells and excludes debris, thereby determining total cell count, and it analyzes cell viability if trypan blue is present in the samples (Figure 1)
• Cell size gating – when working with mixed samples such as primary cells, you can select the population of interest by adjusting the position of cell size gates. You can use the Image preview function as a visual check of cells that will be analyzed in the count (Figure 2). For homogeneous samples such as immortal cell lines, you can let the counting algorithm do all the work
• Cell viability assessment – presence of trypan blue in the sample triggers cell viability analysis using images acquired from multiple focal planes during the focusing step. This prevents inaccurate conclusions that can happen if viability is accessed using information from a single focal plane, as is the case with manual focus cell counters
   
• Analysis options – an image of cells containing a metatag with all of the count data can be automatically exported to a USB flash drive and analyzed using the TC20 Data Analyzer software on your PC. A unique name can be assigned to each sample. You can store up to 100 counts in the onboard memory for access anytime or print them using the thermal printer that connects directly to the TC20 cell counter.

Fig. 1. The TC20 cell counter demonstrates accurate counts of viable cells. Pan T cells mixed with trypan blue (1:1) were counted with a hemocytometer, a TC20 automated cell counter, and a competitor’s image-based automated cell counter. The TC20 counter and hemocytometer cell counts showed no statistically significant differences. Precision is indicated by the standard deviations; error bars represent average standard deviations. Cell counts on the TC20 counter were performed on four different instruments with five sample replicates.Fig. 2. Cell size gating. When user-defined gates are enabled you can select a population of interest by adjusting the position of the cell size gates.

Find out more and view data from the TC20 automated cell counter.

Ordering Information

*TC20 kits, reagents, and accessories are compatible with the TC10™ automated cell counter.