[Application of an automatic blood cell counter, MICROX, to experimental animals. II. Leukocyte differential count in...

Automatic blood cell analyzer "MICROX" was examined for possible applicability to the differential count of white blood cell in the rabbit, rat and mouse. Spun blood smear slides prepared from 37 rabbits were treated with Wright-Giemsa stain, and those from 49 rats and 46 mice were stained with Wright's dye. Totals of 4272 white blood cells of rabbit, 5484 cells of rat and 5329 cells of mouse were counted, respectively. The identification rate of MICROX was checked by the cell-by-cell counting method. Analysis of the data was made to examine correlation between the results with a MICROX and those of visual counting by optical microscopy on the same slides. 1) Corrected identification rates were 98.0%, 98.2% and 97.8% respectively in rabbits, rats and mice. 2) A high degree of correlation was observed between the results by MICROX and by optical microscopy in respect of segmented neutrophils and lymphocytes. 3) There were an average of 13.2 cells counted as unknown cells in rabbit blood, 10.5 in rat blood and 13.6 in mouse blood per 100 cells, respectively. Of the unknown cells about 30 to 40% were closely disposed leukocytes within the same counting squares. Almost all of atypical lymphocytes and erythroblasts were also counted as unknown cells on the analyzer. The data support the feasibility of the use of MICROX for the differential count of white blood cells of normal rabbits, rats and mice as well as monkeys and dogs.