A quick, reliable, and automated method for fat cell sizing

Mean diameters of fat cells from abdominal tissues from 31 volunteers were determined by three methods based on fat cell isolation after collagenase digestion and methylene blue staining. The three methods were direct microscopy (Micro), manual measurement of diameters from digital images by using the public domain NIH Image program (Scion), and automated measurement of diameters from digital images using a customized program developed by Biomedical Imaging Resource at Mayo Clinic (AdCount). There was excellent agreement between the methods' measurement of mean abdominal fat cell diameter (concordance correlation coefficient >0.84). The Scion method gave slightly but systematically lower mean abdominal fat cell diameters than did either AdCount or Micro. The AdCount approach produced results that are comparable to those from Micro. Comparison of AdCount and Micro in measuring diameters of fat cells from thigh confirmed the good comparability between the two methods independent of fat depot. AdCount is very reliable, and the quickest and most objective of the three methods in measuring fat cell diameters from various depots.