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Insect Cells

Insect Cells

Insect cells are routinely used in transfection, plaques assays, virus production and protein expression.

Cellometer® Auto T4 is used to count cell concentration, viability and also analyze size distribution of insect cells, such as SF9, SF21, and High 5. 

Procedure for Counting Insect Cells:
  1. Mix insect cell culture with trypan blue.
  2. Pipette 20 µl of the mixture solution into sample introduction port of a disposable counting chamber (CHT4).
  3. Insert chamber slide into Auto T4 instrument.
  4. Run Cellometer® Software to obtain cell concentration, viability and cell size diameters. 


SF9 cell images. Mean cell size equals 18.3 micron. (a) Raw data image and (b)counted cells are indicated by green for live cells and red for dead cells.



Auto T4 measurement results of a infected cell population. (a) Raw image and (b) counted cell image. This cell population has very low viability of 14% after viral infection.



Cell size analysis is used to monitor SF9 cultures before and after infection. Multiple cell size data can be displayed on the same histogram.


Cell size histogram of SF9 cells measured by Auto T4 before and after infection.



High 5 cell image