High-Pressure Freezing to Study Structure and Function of the Host Parasite Interface

Extract

The high-pressure freezing instrument exposes a sample to a pressure of 2100 bar, which lowers the freezing point and, as a result, reduces the rate of ice nucleation and ice-crystal growth. The reduced critical cooling rate allows adequate freezing of samples up to 0,3 mm in thickness without using cryoprotectants. Before pressure application, the sample is sandwiched between specimen holders. To optimize heat conductivity and to avoid damage by the high pressure impact, the free space inside the specimen holders and within the sample has to be filled with liquid. This means that plant leaves need to be infiltrated to remove gas from the intercellular space. We have used water, 3-8% methanol in water, 1-hexadecene or heptane as infiltration medium. Subsequently, samples were freeze substituted in unhydrous acetone with 2% Os04 for 24 h at -90°C. Samples were slowly warmed up to 4°C and embedded in Unicryl, or warmed up to room temperature and embedded in epoxide resin.