JPH0112187Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to an apparatus for measuring the electrophoretic velocity of cells in a cell suspension.

When white blood cells or lymphocytes are suspended in a suitable solution and an electric field is applied, these cells undergo electrophoresis, and their mobility during electrophoresis provides diagnostic information. For this reason, devices for measuring the electrophoretic velocity of cells have been proposed. These devices are configured to illuminate the cells, form an image of the cells with an optical device, and analyze the motion of the image using an appropriate method. The present invention aims to increase the contrast of the optical image of cells in such a device, and improve the S/N ratio of the measurement results no matter which method is used to analyze the movement of the image.

A cell electrophoresis device has a structure in which a transparent electrophoresis tube is filled with cell suspension, an electric field is applied, and the electrophoresis tube is illuminated from outside the tube to form an image of the floating cells on an image motion analysis device. ing. Because of this structure, the light used to illuminate the cells is reflected once or repeatedly on the wall of the electrophoresis tube and on the many optical devices intervening between the light source and the image plane. Light, light scattered by the cells, reflected by the electrophoresis tube wall, etc. form the background of the cell image, reducing the contrast of the cell image with its surroundings. The present invention aims to improve the S/N ratio of measurements by lowering this background level.

As mentioned above, the background of the cell image contains a considerable amount of polarized light components, mainly due to complicated reflected light from various parts of the apparatus. The present invention focuses on this point and lowers the background level of cell images. The present invention will be explained below with reference to Examples.

The drawings show an embodiment of the invention. 1 is the light source, 2
The electrophoresis tube is made of glass. Reference numeral 3 denotes a projection optical system which forms an image of a suitable surface within the electrophoresis tube 2 onto a light receiving element 4 which is an input end surface of an image motion analysis device. A condenser lens 5 condenses the light from the light source 1 onto a portion of the electrophoresis tube 2 that is viewed by the projection lens system. The optical axis of the lens 5 and the optical axis of the lens system 3 intersect within the electrophoresis tube 2, so that the light emitted from the light source 1 is prevented from directly reaching the light receiving element 4. Therefore, when viewed from the light receiving element 4, the projection lens system 3
is a dark field, and the cell image is formed as a bright dot on the light receiving element 4 against a dark background.

6 is a polarizing plate inserted between the light source and the electrophoresis tube 2, and 7 is a polarizing plate inserted immediately after the projection optical system 3. Beam splitter 8 after polarizing plate 7
The light beam is divided into the light receiving element 4 and the eyepiece 9. Initially, the polarizing plate 7 is removed and only the polarizing plate 6 is inserted to form an image of the cells in the cell suspension in the electrophoresis tube 2 on the light receiving element 4. The eyepiece lens 9 is installed so that when the projection lens 3 is adjusted so that the cell image (visible as a light spot) can be seen most clearly while looking through the eyepiece lens 9, the cell image is focused on the light receiving element 4. . When the cell image is in focus, look through the eyepiece 9 and turn the polarizer 6 so that the contrast of the cell image is the best. Since the reflected light on the surface of the medium contains many polarized light components in one direction, if the polarized light components are removed from the incident light, the reflected light will be reduced. Therefore, when the polarizer 6 is rotated, there is a direction of the polarizer 6 that provides the best contrast of the cell image. After setting the polarizer 6 so that the contrast of the cell image is the best, the polarizer 7 is inserted, and the polarizer is rotated to set it in a direction that further improves the contrast of the cell image. Most of the polarized light components included in the background are removed by the polarizer 6 before the light enters the electrophoresis tube 2, but the process of generating the scattered light that forms the background is not just a single reflection. Since the polarization is extremely complicated, a considerable amount of scattered light polarized in a direction different from the polarization direction of the light incident on the electrophoresis tube 2 remains in the light after passing through the projection lens 3. The polarizer 7 removes the polarized component of such scattered light.

If a linearly polarized laser is used as the light source 1, the polarizer 6
can be omitted, and the laser can be rotated and set at the position with the best contrast.

The cell electrophoresis measuring device of the present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, focusing on the fact that the background of the optical image of cells is polarized, and removes the polarized component that causes the background on the incident side to the electrophoresis tube. After the electrophoresis tube, we further removed the polarized components of the scattered light and sent only the light that forms the cell image to the imaging plane of the cell image, reducing the background of the cell image and improving the contrast of the cell image. This improves the cell detection sensitivity and improves the S/N ratio of measurements.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a side view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1... Light source, 2... Electrophoresis tube, 3... Projection lens, 4... Light receiving element, 6, 7... Polarizer, 8...
...beam splitter, 9...eyepiece.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] It is configured to form an optical image of cells in a cell suspension and analyze the movement of the optical image.The cell suspension is illuminated with a polarized light source device, a polarizer is inserted in front of the cell image, and the polarized light source is A cell electrophoresis measurement device in which the directions of the polarization planes of the device and the polarizer can be adjusted to maximize the contrast between a cell image and a background.