An evaluation of the cryosectioning of fixed and cryoprotected rat liver.

The influence of temperature and speed on cryosectioning was studied by replication of the surfaces of both the sections and the specimen blocks. At 90 mm/s and at temperatures lower than -70 degrees C, specimen block surfaces displayed fracture images similar to those encountered with standard freeze-fracturing procedures; but at a speed of 0.1 mm/s, fracture images were found only at temperatures lower than -120 degrees C. Replicas of both sides of cryosections never displayed fracture images. The discrepancy between the surface structure of cryosections and specimen blocks is discussed from the aspect of the preservation of ultrastructure of cells.

Steric hindrance in immunolabelling.

In this paper we describe immunocytochemical detection of PhoE pore protein in the outer membrane of E. coli K-12 cells in dependence of a variety of labelling approaches. Immuno-gold labelling on ultrathin cryosections showed a uniform, dense labelling of the outer membrane of all cells. However, using immunofluorescence, whole-mount or freeze-etch labelling methods, labelling was limited to less than 5% of the cell population. In order to understand this phenomenon, immunoincubated cells exhibiting less than 5% labelling were processed for cryo-ultramicrotomy. Reincubation of the sections with antibody and probe resulted in labelling of all of the cells. If an E. coli Gal-U mutant strain, defective in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) carbohydrate chain length, was used, each approach rendered 100% labelling. From these results it is concluded that the antigenic sites of the PhoE pore protein are not accessible in intact 'wild-type' cells due to steric hindrance caused by the LPS carbohydrate chains. In cryosections this steric hindrance is partly precluded since antigenic determinants are exposed at the section surface in transversely cut membranes. Our results emphasize the necessity to compare results obtained by means of several, basically different approaches.

The application of cryo-ultramicrotomy and freeze-substitution in immuno-gold labelling of hybrid proteins in Escherichia coli. A comparison.

To study the possible effects of chemical fixation upon antigenicity and structural preservation, the subcellular localization of LamB-LacZ hybrid proteins in Escherichia coli K-12 strains pop3234 and pop3299 was investigated both by cryo-ultramicrotomy and freeze-substitution. Immuno-gold labelling of sections of freeze-substituted bacteria showed the same localization of the hybrid protein as found after cryo-ultramicrotomy. The efficiency of labelling of the accumulated form of the hybrid protein was lower after freeze-substitution whereas the efficiency of labelling of the membrane-bound form showed no difference. Different fixatives and Lowicryl resins had no clear effect on the label-efficiency but the complex substitution medium, containing osmium tetroxide, uranyl acetate and glutaraldehyde, in combination with the apolar Lowicryl HM20 gave the best sectioning properties and membrane contrast. For this specific problem, although the somewhat better preservation after freeze-substitution, cryo-ultramicrotomy is to be favored since it is much less time-consuming, there are no freezing problems, ultrastructural preservation is sufficient and the theoretical benefits of freeze-substitution are not expressed.