Name: how tem reveals tiny structures
Uploaded: 2023-04-30T12:01:08.000Z
Duration: 1 min 15 s
Channel: JoVE

Um microscópio eletrônico de transmissão ou TEM é usado para estudar a estrutura e composição interna de uma amostra.
O instrumento consiste em um canhão de elétrons que emite um feixe de elétrons. O feixe é então focado na amostra usando duas ou mais lentes condensadoras eletromagnéticas.
Os elétrons transmitidos através da amostra são coletados e focados por lentes objetivas para formar a imagem intermediária. Esta imagem é ampliada por lentes intermediárias e de projetor adicionais.
A imagem final pode ser capturada usando dispositivos de imagem sensíveis a elétrons, como uma tela fosforescente ou câmera CCD.
O MET forma uma imagem bidimensional em preto e branco de uma amostra. As áreas mais escuras representam regiões densas que transmitem poucos ou nenhum elétron. Em contraste, áreas mais claras indicam as regiões através das quais mais elétrons são transmitidos.
O MET também é usado para analisar a composição da amostra. A interação feixe de elétrons-amostra gera raios-X característicos que podem ser usados para identificar e quantificar diferentes elementos presentes em uma amostra.

microscopia eletrônica de transmissão

Transmission Electron Microscopy

Em 1931, o físico Ernst Ruska – com base na ideia de que os campos magnéticos podem direcionar um feixe de elétrons da mesma forma que as lentes podem direcionar um feixe de luz em um microscópio óptico – desenvolveu o primeiro protótipo do microscópio eletrônico. Este desenvolvimento levou ao desenvolvimento do campo da microscopia eletrônica. No microscópio eletrônico de transmissão (MET), os elétrons são produzidos por um elemento de tungstênio quente e acelerados por uma diferença de potencial em um canhão de elétrons, o que lhes dá até 400 keV em energia cinética. Depois de sair do canhão de elétrons, o feixe de elétrons é focado por lentes eletromagnéticas (um sistema de lentes condensadoras) e transmitido através de uma amostra a ser visualizada. A imagem da amostra é reconstruída a partir do feixe de elétrons transmitido. A imagem ampliada pode ser visualizada diretamente em uma tela fluorescente, ou indiretamente, enviando-a, por exemplo, para uma câmera digital ou monitor de computador. Toda a configuração que consiste no canhão de elétrons, nas lentes, na amostra e na tela fluorescente é encerrada em uma câmara de vácuo para evitar perda de energia do feixe. Modelos modernos de alta resolução de um MET podem ter poder de resolução superior a 0,5 Å e ampliações superiores a 50 milhões de vezes. Para efeito de comparação, o melhor poder de resolução obtido com microscopia óptica é atualmente de cerca de 97 nm. Uma limitação do MET é que as amostras devem ter cerca de 100 nm de espessura, e as amostras biológicas requerem uma preparação especial envolvendo “fixação” química para estabilizá-las para fatiamento ultrafino. Para superar as limitações, vários avanços nas técnicas de MET, como o crio-MET, foram feitos para eliminar artefatos e permitir imagens diretas de amostras sem os estágios prejudiciais de fixação e desidratação da amostra. Este texto é adaptado de <a href="https://openstax.org/books/university-physics-volume-3/pages/6-6-wave-particle-duality?query=transmission%20electron&target=%7B%22type%22%3A%22search%22%2C%22index%22%3A0%7D#fs-id1163711954948">Openstax, University Physics Volume 3, Capítulo 6 Fótons e Ondas da Matéria, Seção 6.6: Dualidade Onda-Partícula</a>.

Microscopia Eletrônica de Transmissão

Em 1931, o físico Ernst Ruska - com base na ideia de que os campos magnéticos podem direcionar um feixe de elétrons assim como as lentes podem direcionar um feixe de luz em um ...

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Biologia Celular

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Visualizing Cells, Tissues, and Molecules

Visualizando Células, Tecidos e Moléculas

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how tem reveals tiny structures

Transmission electron microscopy uses electrons to reveal very small structures inside a specimen. The technique grew from the first electron microscope prototype developed in 1931 by physicist Ernst Ruska. He built on the idea that magnetic fields can direct an electron beam, just as lenses direct light in an optical microscope.

In a transmission electron microscope, a hot tungsten element produces electrons. An electron gun then accelerates them with a potential difference, giving the beam up to 400 keV of kinetic energy. Electromagnetic lenses, arranged as condensing lenses, focus the beam before it passes through the sample.

The image is formed from the electrons that move through the specimen. That reconstructed image can be viewed on a fluorescent screen or sent to a digital camera or computer monitor. The full system, including the electron gun, lenses, specimen, and screen, sits inside a vacuum chamber to reduce energy loss from the beam.

Modern high-resolution TEM models can resolve details smaller than 0.5 Å and reach magnifications above 50 million times. By comparison, the best resolving power of light microscopy is about 97 nm. TEM does have limits, because samples must be about 100 nm thick, and biological samples need chemical fixing before ultrathin slicing.

To reduce these limits, researchers have developed newer TEM methods such as cryo-TEM. These approaches help remove artifacts and can allow direct imaging without the sample-damaging steps of fixation and dehydration.

How TEM Reveals Tiny Structures

imaging biological samples with optical microscopy

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How Light Microscopes Bring Samples Into View

Optical microscopy uses light and lenses to make tiny biological samples visible. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek built the first compound optical microscope in the 17th century to view blood cells, bacteria, and yeast cells. In 1830, Joseph Jackson Lister developed an essentially modern light microscope. During the 20th century, microscopes gained better magnification and resolution. A sample is placed on a glass slide and clipped onto the stage, which is the flat platform of the microscope. The...

phase contrast and differential interference contrast microscopy

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Microscope Contrast for Live, Unstained Cells

Phase-contrast and differential interference contrast microscopy help scientists see live cells without stains. Both methods boost contrast so thin, transparent structures become easier to study under the microscope. Phase-contrast microscopes use interference between light that passes straight through a cell and light that is refracted by cell parts. The microscope uses an annular stop in the condenser to make a hollow cone of light. The objective lens also contains a phase plate with a phase...

fixation and sectioning

Microscope Slide Prep and Staining

Microscope slide preparation includes wet mounts, fixation, and staining. These steps help make specimens easier to see under a light microscope. They also help preserve cells and highlight important structures. A wet mount is the simplest slide preparation. The specimen is placed in a drop of liquid on the slide. A liquid sample can be added directly with a dropper, and a solid sample, such as a skin scraping, can be placed on the slide before the liquid is added. The liquid is sometimes...

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Fluorescent Antibody Staining in Cells

Fluorescent antibody staining uses a fluorescence microscope to make cells and microbes visible in bright colors against a dark background. The microscope works with fluorochromes, which are fluorescent dyes that absorb energy from a light source and then give off visible light. Some fluorochromes are natural, such as chlorophylls. Others are added to the specimen to improve contrast. Common examples of fluorochromes include Texas red and FITC. The method can also use nucleic acid dyes such as...

immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry

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Antibody Staining in Cells and Tissues

Immunocytochemistry (ICC) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) use antibodies to detect specific proteins or antigens in samples. ICC focuses on individual cells, such as blood cells and stem cells. IHC is used for tissue samples. These methods were first published by Albert Coons in 1941, when they were used to detect pneumococcal antigen in mouse tissue sections from mice infected with Pneumococcus. Both techniques can produce either a colored signal or a fluorescent signal. Enzyme-conjugated...

confocal fluorescence microscopy

Confocal Microscopy for Sharp Cell Images

Confocal microscopy is an advanced imaging method used to capture sharp fluorescence images. Its main advantage is that it blocks out-of-focus light from the sample with pinholes. That helps produce high-resolution images with strong contrast. Unlike a standard optical microscope, a confocal microscope uses a focused laser beam to scan the sample surface at different z-planes. This makes it especially useful for thick specimens, such as biofilms. These samples can often be examined alive and...

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Fluorescent Methods for Protein Movement

Protein movement in living cells can be measured with fluorescence-based methods such as FRAP, FRET, and PET. These techniques help scientists track how proteins move, interact, and change distance inside the cell. Fluorescent recovery after photobleaching, or FRAP, measures protein movement rates within the cell. In this method, a small region is exposed to a strong laser beam. The beam permanently bleaches fluorophore-tagged proteins in that area. Over time, bleached proteins diffuse away...

total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy

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Surface-Only Imaging with TIRF Microscopy

Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, or TIRF, is a microscope method used to view fluorophores near a solid surface with a higher refractive index, such as a glass coverslip. It is useful when scientists want to study signals close to the cell surface. TIRF works when light from a medium with a lower refractive index, such as air, hits the glass coverslip at a critical angle. Instead of entering the glass, the light undergoes total internal reflection. This reflection creates an...

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Atomic force microscopy is used to map the surface details of materials. It can examine ceramics, glass, polymers, and biological samples. The method gives far more resolution than an optical imaging system and produces three-dimensional surface profiles instead of flat 2D images. The probe is the key part of an AFM setup. It includes the cantilever and tip assembly, and it is also the part that is replaced most often. Constant contact with samples wears down the tip, so probe choice depends...

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Sharper Cell Images with Fluorescence Microscopy

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy gives sharper images than standard fluorescence microscopy by reducing the point spread function, or PSF. The PSF is the light pattern from a point source that makes it look blurred. Because of this blur, each fluorescent spot appears larger than it really is. Nearby fluorophores can also overlap through their PSFs and make the image less clear. Several super-resolution methods have been developed to improve image detail. Photoactivated localization...

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Electron Microscopy: TEM vs SEM

Electron microscopy uses electrons instead of visible light to make images with much higher detail than a light microscope. Visible light limits the resolution of light microscopes, which usually magnify up to 1000X, and sometimes up to 1500X. Electrons have a much shorter wavelength, about 0.005 nm, so they can produce resolution as fine as 0.05 nm. An electron microscope can also magnify images up to 2,000,000X and reveal subcellular structures and some molecular structures, including single...

scanning electron microscopy

How SEM Reveals Surface Details

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) reveals the surface details of a sample with an electron beam. The beam scans across the sample in a two-dimensional pattern. SEM can image areas from about 1 centimeter down to 5 micrometers wide. SEM is useful for studying bacteria, viruses, tissues, and larger samples such as insects. Conventional SEM can produce magnification from 20X to 30,000X. It also offers spatial resolution of about 50 to 100 nanometers. The process starts when the electron gun...

transmission electron microscopy

Transmission electron microscopy uses electrons to reveal very small structures inside a specimen. The technique grew from the first electron microscope prototype developed in 1931 by physicist Ernst Ruska. He built on the idea that magnetic fields can direct an electron beam, just as lenses direct light in an optical microscope. In a transmission electron microscope, a hot tungsten element produces electrons. An electron gun then accelerates them with a potential difference, giving the beam...

preparation of samples for electron microscopy

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Electron Microscopy Sample Prep Methods

Electron microscopy sample prep methods help biological samples survive imaging in TEM and SEM. Before a specimen can be viewed, it must be fixed, or stabilized, so the electron beam does not damage it. It also must be dried well, or desiccated, because the microscope uses a vacuum. Fixation should happen as quickly as possible. Once a sample leaves its natural environment, its properties begin to change. In tissue samples, oxygen levels can drop and change the appearance of mitochondria. That...

immunogold electron microscopy

Immunogold Labeling in Electron Microscopy

Immunogold labeling in electron microscopy uses antibodies and tiny gold particles to find specific proteins in cells and tissues. The gold particles are very electron-dense, which means they show up clearly in electron microscope images. This gives researchers a high-resolution way to see where proteins are located and to compare their amounts under different stimulation conditions. The method can reveal proteins on the cell surface and inside cells. It has been used to study proteins...

cryo-electron microscopy

Cryo-EM for Native Biomolecule Imaging

Cryo-EM, or cryo-electron microscopy, lets scientists image biomolecules in their frozen, native state. It avoids the dehydration, fixation, and staining used in conventional electron microscopy, which can distort samples and create artifacts. It also reduces damage from the electron beam by using gentler imaging conditions. This method is useful when other structure tools have limits. X-ray diffraction needs a molecule to form a crystal, and that is not always possible. Even when...

electron microscope tomography and single-particle reconstruction

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3D Imaging with Electron Microscopy

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can build 3D images of biological samples. It does this with electron microscope tomography and single-particle reconstruction. Tomography can show cell parts or small cells in vivo, while single-particle reconstruction is used for macromolecules and macromolecular complexes in vitro only. Electron tomography can be done in TEM or in STEM, which stands for scanning transmission electron microscopy. STEM is mainly used for thick biological specimens. It...

key terms and concepts

Learn how transmission electron microscopy uses electrons, magnetic lenses, and a vacuum to image ultra-thin samples at extreme magnification.

How TEM Reveals Tiny Structures | JoVE K12

cell biology

JoVE Core - Biologia Celular ilustra processos celulares complexos em vídeos de animação fáceis de entender e, ao mesmo tempo, abrangentes. Esta coleção foca nos componentes e funções essenciais das células, incluindo organelas e membranas, transporte celular e energia celular. É complementado por vídeos de Cientistas em ação que demonstram a aplicação da biologia celular em experimentos de pesquisa do mundo real.

How TEM Reveals Tiny Structures

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