To preserve tissue by freezing is an ancient concept going back pre­ sumably to the practice of ice-age hunters. At first glance, it seems as simple as it is attractive: the dynamics of life are frozen in, nothing is added and nothing withdrawn except thermal energy. Thus, the result should be more life-like than after poisoning, tan­ ning and drying a living cell as we may rudely call the conventional preparation of specimens for electron microscopy. Countless mishaps, however, have taught electron microscopists that cryotechniques too are neither simple nor necessarily more life-like in their outcome. Not too long ago, experts in cryotechniques strictly denied that a cell could truly be vitrified, i.e. that all the solutes and macro­ molecules could be fixed within non-crystalline, glass-like solid water without the dramatic shifts and segregation effects caused by crystallization. We now know that vitrification is indeed pos­ sible. Growing insight into the fundamentals of the physics of water and ice, as well as increasing experience of how to cool cells rapidly enough have enlivened the interest in cryofixation and pro­ duced a wealth of successful applications.

zlib/no-category/Steinbrecht, Rudolf Alexander; Zierold, Karl/Cryotechniques in Biological Electron Microscopy ||_73421362.pdf

edited by Rudolf Alexander Steinbrecht, Karl Zierold

Steinbrecht, Rudolf Alexander; Zierold, Karl

Spektrum Akademischer Verlag. in Springer-Verlag GmbH

Steinkopff. in Springer-Verlag GmbH

Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany, 1987

Springer Nature, Berlin, 1987

Germany, Germany

sm41116013

Online full text is restricted to subscribers.
Also available in print.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This book is intended as a versatile handbook with comprehensive articles on cryotechniques in biological electron microscopy. Each chapter provides a selective and critical review on a topic of major interest, written by a well known expert. Three fundamental articles treat the physics of water and ice, the physics of specimen preparation, and the effects of radiation damage. Aspects of the cryofixation of dynamic events and of defined physiological states are also considered. A recapitulation of safety rules completes the volume. This handbook provides a good overview of the state-of-the-art for the newcomer as well as dor more established workers in the field.

Fundamentals
General Methodology
Special Aspects
Appendix
Glossary
Subject Index.

2015-08-03