Ultrathin Serial Sectioning
Ultrathin Serial Sectioning - Related Videos
09:46
A Method for Obtaining Serial Ultrathin Sections of Microorganisms in Transmission Electron Microscopy
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Cited by 15 •
2018
This study presents reliable and easy procedures for obtaining serial ultrathin sections of a microorganism without expensive equipment in transmission electron microscopy.
03:30
Snap Freezing of Muscle Tissue for Sectioning: A Protocol to Obtain Ultrathin Sections of Rapidly Frozen Murine Muscle Tissue
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2023
This video describes the procedure for snap freezing muscle tissue and obtaining its thin sections. The technique can help study cancer-related cachexia in colon cancer mouse models.
10:53
Serial Dilutions and Plating: Microbial Enumeration
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2023
Source: Jonathan F. Blaize1, Elizabeth Suter1, and Christopher P. Corbo1 1 Department of Biological Sciences, Wagner College, 1 Campus Road, Staten Island NY, 10301 Quantitative assessment of prokaryotes can be onerous given their abundance, propensity for exponential proliferation, species diversity within a population, and specific physiological needs. Compounding this challenge, is the four-phase nature in which bacteria replicate (lag, log, stationary and death). The ability to accurately...
11:19
Multimodal Hierarchical Imaging of Serial Sections for Finding Specific Cellular Targets within Large Volumes
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Cited by 12 •
2018
This protocol targets specific cells in tissue for imaging at nanoscale resolution using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Large numbers of serial sections from resin-embedded biological material are first imaged in a light microscope to identify the target and then in a hierarchical manner in the SEM.
10:08
Fabrication of Large-area Free-standing Ultrathin Polymer Films
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Cited by 10 •
2015
We describe a method for the fabrication of large-area (up to 13 cm diameter) and ultrathin (as thin as 8 nm) polymer films. Instead of using a sacrificial interlayer to delaminate the film from its substrate, we use a self-limiting surface treatment suitable for arbitrarily large areas.
FAQs
Consecutive sections preserve the specimen’s structural continuity across depth, allowing researchers to follow membranes, organelles, protein-rich structures, and interfaces through a larger volume. A single slice shows only one plane and may miss how features connect or change spatially. Serial collection therefore supports a more complete interpretation of cellular organization and structural relationships.
The hardened resin block provides a stable medium that holds the specimen during cutting, while the diamond knife produces the required nanometer-scale sections. Their combination makes it possible to generate consecutive slices with enough structural detail for transmission electron microscopy. The resulting sections can be collected individually on grids for sequential examination.
Images from successive sections are aligned so that corresponding structures can be followed from one slice to the next. This sequence supplies spatial information along the specimen’s depth, enabling three-dimensional reconstruction rather than interpretation of isolated planes. The reconstructed view can clarify the organization and continuity of membranes, organelles, and other protein-rich cellular structures.
Ultrathin serial sectioning connects biochemical features with their structural locations. By showing protein-rich structures, membranes, organelles, and interfaces within preserved spatial context, it helps relate molecular composition to cellular organization. This perspective is valuable when biochemical interpretation depends not only on what components are present, but also on where they occur within cells or tissues.
A specimen is embedded in resin and allowed to form a hardened block. An ultramicrotome equipped with a diamond knife then cuts the block into consecutive nanometer-scale sections. The sections are collected on grids and examined, commonly by transmission electron microscopy. The resulting image series can subsequently be aligned for three-dimensional analysis.
The approach can be applied to cells, tissues, biomaterials, and specimens showing disease-related changes. It is especially useful when the research question concerns ultrastructure across a volume, such as the arrangement of organelles, membranes, protein-rich regions, or interfaces. Serial analysis may reveal spatial relationships that a single section cannot capture.