A Simple and Efficient Method for Preparing Cell Slides and Staining without Using Cytocentrifuge and Cytoclips

Abstract

Cell staining is a necessary and useful technique for visualizing cell morphology and structure under a microscope. This technique has been used in many areas such as cytology, hematology, oncology, histology, virology, serology, microbiology, cell biology, and immunochemistry. One of the key pieces of equipment for preparing a slide for cell staining is cytology centrifuge (cytocentrifuge) such as cytospin. However, many small labs do not have this expensive equipment and its accessory, cytoclips (also expensive relatively), which makes them difficult to study cell cytology. Here we present an alternative method for preparing a slide and cell staining in the absence of a cytocentrifuge (and cytoclips). This method is based on the principle that a regular cell centrifuge can be used to concentrate cells harvested from cell culture and then deposit the concentrated cell suspension to a slide evenly by using a cell spreader, followed by cell staining. The method presented is simple, rapid, economic, and efficient. This method may also avoid a possible change in cell morphology induced by cytocentrifuge.