The making of frozen-hydrated, vitreous lamellas from cells for cryo-electron microscopy.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_C9D2C7C09AB2
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
The making of frozen-hydrated, vitreous lamellas from cells for cryo-electron microscopy.
Journal
Journal of Structural Biology
Author(s)
Hayles M.F., de Winter D.A., Schneijdenberg C.T., Meeldijk J.D., Luecken U., Persoon H., de Water J., de Jong F., Humbel B.M., Verkleij A.J.
ISSN
1095-8657 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1047-8477
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2010
Volume
172
Number
2
Pages
180-190
Language
english
Abstract
There has been a long standing desire to produce thick (up to 500 nm) cryo-sections of fully hydrated cells and tissue for high-resolution analysis in their natural state by cryo-transmission electron microscopy. Here, we present a method that can successfully produce sections (lamellas in FIB-SEM terminology) of fully hydrated, unstained cells from high-pressure frozen samples by focused ion beam (FIB) milling. The samples are therefore placed in thin copper tubes and vitrified by high-pressure freezing. For transfer, handling and subsequent milling, the tubes are placed in a novel connective device (ferrule) that protects the sample from devitrification and contamination and passes through all operation steps. A piezo driven sample positioning stage (cryo-nano-bench, CNB) with three degrees of freedom was additionally developed to enable accurate milling of frozen-hydrated lamellas. With the CNB, high-pressure frozen samples can be milled to produce either thin lamellas (<100 nm), for direct imaging by high-resolution cryo-TEM or thicker lamellas (300-500 nm) for cryo-electron tomography. The sample remains vitreous throughout the process by using the presented tools and methods. The results are an important step towards investigating larger cells and even tissue in there natural state which in the end will enable us to gain better insights into cellular processes.
Keywords
Cryoelectron Microscopy/instrumentation, Cryoelectron Microscopy/methods, Electron Microscope Tomography/methods, Frozen Sections/instrumentation, Frozen Sections/methods, Microscopy, Electron, Transmission/methods, Saccharomyces cerevisiae/ultrastructure
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
27/02/2012 11:39
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:44
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