TY  - JOUR
AU  - Belu, Andreea
AU  - Schnitker, Jan
AU  - Bertazzo, S.
AU  - Neumann, Elmar
AU  - Mayer, Dirk
AU  - Offenhäusser, Andreas
AU  - Santoro, Francesca
TI  - Ultra-thin resin embedding method for scanning electron microscopy of individual cells on high and low aspect ratio 3D nanostructures
JO  - Journal of microscopy
VL  - 263
IS  - 1
SN  - 0022-2720
CY  - Oxford [u.a.]
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
M1  - FZJ-2016-01587
SP  -  78–86
PY  - 2016
AB  - The preparation of biological cells for either scanning or transmission electron microscopy requires a complex process of fixation, dehydration and drying. Critical point drying is commonly used for samples investigated with a scanning electron beam, whereas resin-infiltration is typically used for transmission electron microscopy. Critical point drying may cause cracks at the cellular surface and a sponge-like morphology of nondistinguishable intracellular compartments. Resin-infiltrated biological samples result in a solid block of resin, which can be further processed by mechanical sectioning, however that does not allow a top view examination of small cell–cell and cell–surface contacts. Here, we propose a method for removing resin excess on biological samples before effective polymerization. In this way the cells result to be embedded in an ultra-thin layer of epoxy resin. This novel method highlights in contrast to standard methods the imaging of individual cells not only on nanostructured planar surfaces but also on topologically challenging substrates with high aspect ratio three-dimensional features by scanning electron microscopy.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000379167100008
C6  - pmid:26820619
DO  - DOI:10.1111/jmi.12378
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/281937
ER  -