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Embedding Small Specimens for TEM Examination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Paul Webster*
Affiliation:
House Ear Institute

Extract

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When preparing specimens for TEM analysis, it is important that specimens routinely be large enough to manipulate with forceps and cohesive enough to hold together as a single entity. However, anyone working in EM will have some specimens that are too small to see or centrifuged pellets that easily fall apart during processing. These specimens can easily be lost during a routine dehydration and embedding protocol and therefore cannot be sectioned. If the specimen to be processed is too small to handle or will fall apart, then precautions can be taken to ensure that it can be safely embedded for sectioning. Although this article is written with the main focus on biomedical electron microscopy, these handling protocols can be applied to any small specimens that have to be thin sectioned.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2005

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