Fabrication of an optical imaging system for characterizing immune cell clones

An optical system was designed to obtain and analyze images of the immune cell clones on a micro-well plate. The immune cell clones appeared as dark spots when the ELISPOT (enzymelinked immunospot) method was used. The imaging hardware comprises off-the-shelf components, such as a commercial relay lens and a digital camera, except for the opto-mechanical adapter which was made by using a 3D printer. Furthermore, the image analysis was performed by using the opensource software called ImageJ in order to automate the counting of the spots. The various functions of ImageJ and the macro-programming capability allowed a complicated analysis and calculation of the images of the cell colonies obtained by using the ELISPOT method. The ELISPOT reader based on off-the-shelf components and the open-source software may contribute to a more widespread use of the ELISPOT method.