The invention relates to a method for analyzing cells that are present as closed clusters. According to said method, a planar
tissue preparation is subjected to an identification
staining of the
cell nuclei and a target structure
staining of
cell objects that is different from the identification
staining. Digital images are recorded of the stained
tissue preparation by means of an electronic
image recording device and at least one image of a subsection of the tissue
cut is displayed in at least one coloration. According to the inventive method, at least one parameter of the
cell nuclei and at least one parameter of the cell objects labeled by target structure staining is restricted to a predetermined range of values.
Cell nuclei and cell objects whose parameters correspond to the respective parameter range(s) are detected and optionally displayed using
image processing algorithms in the image of said subsection. The
image content of at least one image detected for the cell nuclei is correlated with the
image content of at least one image detected for the target-structure stained cell objects to detect the individual cells. On the basis of the cell nuclei identified a
cell growth or a cell enlargement is induced using a predetermined arithmetic
algorithm to reconstruct the individual cells. In doing so it is made sure that neighboring cells do not fuse. The number of reconstructed individual cells is determined and / or the individual cells are divided into populations according to certain parameters.