The great many varieties of dermal regeneration materials currently being developed requires that sound in vitro assessments of their potential to be infiltrated with host cells are needed prior to any in vivo studies. The biocompatibility of scaffolds is conventionally determined by indirect biochemical assays as measures of cell number/viability within these materials. A disadvantage of these methods is the failure to provide information pertaining to the spatial distribution of cells in situ. In the case of dermal regeneration, if cells are only present in appreciable numbers on the outer portion of a scaffold, then critical aspects such as extra‐cellular matrix (ECM) production and vascularization will be limited, and the likelihood of successful tissue regeneration low. Thus, direct enumeration of cells within scaffolds, with respect to spatial distribution and time, is required to adequately assess the potential biocompatibility. In this article we demonstrate a systematic approach to the quantifica...