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Ultravibratomy Applied in Ultrathin Sectioning Results in Sections Without Distortions and Compression.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Daniel Studer  and
Helmut Gnagi
Daniel Studer
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Analyse Ultrastructurale, BB, Université de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne and M.E.Müller Institute for Biomechanics, University of Bern, P.O. Box 30, CH-3010, Bern.
Helmut Gnagi
Affiliation:
Diatome SA, P.O. Box, CH-2500Biel, Switzerland
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Extract

When resins are ultrathin sectioned they are compressed in the sectioning direction. The amount of compression depends very much on the sectioning angle on one hand, and on the properties of the resin on the other hand. Shortening of the sections in the sectioning direction is in the range of 5 to 35%. Even more compression occurs during cryosectioning of vitreous samples at very low temperatures (-170°C); the range was measured to be 30 to 60% (1).

To reduce these compression phenomena, there is basically only one approach possible. The sectioning angle has to be reduced as much as possible. In the past it was shown that by reducing the knife angle from 45° to 35°, a reduction of compression by appoximately one third was achieved (2). The problem with diamond knives is, that the smaller the knife angle, the more susceptible the cutting edge becomes. In practice angles smaller than 35° are not used because of this limitation.

Type
Cryotechniques, Immunocytochemistry, and Electron Microscopy I. Molecular Approach
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 5 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '99, Microscopy Society of America 57th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 33rd Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon August 1-5, 1999 , August 1999 , pp. 418 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

1.Richter, K.. Micron 25 (4): 297–308, 1994CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Jesior, J.C.. Scanning Microsc Suppl 3:147-52, 1989Google Scholar