This website accompanies the paper “The human cell count and size distribution”, by Ian A. Hatton, Eric D. Galbraith, Nono Saha Cyrille Merleau, Teemu P. Miettinen, Benjamin M. Smith & Jeffery A. Shander. Data and other information can be downloaded from the About tab.
Data on this website are intended to provide a holistic view of cell size, count and aggregate biomass of all the dominant cell types grouped into the tissues of the human body. In total the data cover 1264 tissue cell types, with data drawn from some 1500 prior published sources.
Tissue masses and other tissue level parameters derive from the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP, listed below), for some 60 tissue types in the following three reference human anatomical models:
- Male (70 kg in mass, 176 cm in height and 20 to 50 years of age)
- Female (60 kg, 163 cm in height and 20 to 50 years of age)
- Child (32 kg, 138 cm in height and 10 years of age)
These reference models can be selected at top right. Cell masses for ~400 cell types were obtained direct from histology sources, estimated from various cell parameters such as shape, length and diameter, and/or from their similarity to other known cell types.
To estimate cell counts, we obtained literature values for the relative ratios, cell counts, surface area and/or DNA concentration per unit tissue of the dominant cell types in each of ~60 tissues, listed in the tissue column. These data, combined with tissue masses from ICRP permitted estimates of total cell counts for each cell type within each tissue across all three human models. Cell count multiplied by cell mass gives aggregate biomass for each tissue cell type.
Details of these calculations and data sources for each cell type in each tissue can be viewed at left when the relevant cell is highlighted.
The density distributions showing cell size range at the bottom of the plot are rough approximations, intended to give a sense of relative size range. The cell mass range (shown above) is estimated from the literature from sometimes a small number of estimates that do not allow a full size distribution to be accurately constructed.
ICRP References:
[1] Menzel, Hans-Georg, Christopher Clement, and Paul DeLuca. “ICRP Publication 110. Realistic Reference Phantoms: An ICRP/ICRU Joint Effort. Report of Adult Reference Computational Phantoms.” Annals of the ICRP 39, no. 2 (2009): 1–164.
[2] Snyder, W. S., M. J. Cook, E. S. Nasset, L. R. Karhausen, G. Parry Howells, and I. H. Tipton. ICRP Publication 23: Report of the Task Group on Reference Man: A Report Prepared by a Task Group of Committee 2 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. Vol. 23. Pergamon Oxford, 1975.
[3] Valentin, Jack. ICRP Publication 89: Basic Anatomical and Physiological Data for Use in Radiological Protection: Reference Values. Vol. 89. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2003.
