Rotary Beveling for In Situ Thin-Section Microscopy of Cell Cultures

Author(s):  
Dean A. Handley ◽  
Jack T. Alexander ◽  
Shu Chien

In situ preparation of cell cultures for ultrastructural investigations is a convenient method by which fixation, dehydration and embedment are carried out in the culture petri dish. The in situ method offers the advantage of preserving the native orientation of cell-cell interactions, junctional regions and overlapping configurations. In order to section after embedment, the petri dish is usually separated from the polymerized resin by either differential cryo-contraction or solvation in organic fluids. The remaining resin block must be re-embedded before sectioning. Although removal of the petri dish may not disrupt the native cellular geometry, it does sacrifice what is now recognized as an important characteristic of cell growth: cell-substratum molecular interactions. To preserve the topographic cell-substratum relationship, we developed a simple method of tapered rotary beveling to reduce the petri dish thickness to a dimension suitable for direct thin sectioning.

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. E10
Author(s):  
Uwe M. H. Schrell ◽  
Michael G. Rittig ◽  
Marc Anders ◽  
Franklin Kiesewetter ◽  
Rolf Marschalek ◽  
...  

Meningiomas, which invade intracranial bone structures and the adjacent connective tissue, are frequently unresectable because of their aggressive and recalcitrant growth behavior. They have a high recurrence rate, and in approximately 10% of these tumors there is an increased risk of malignancy. Significant morbidity and mortality rates associated with recurrent meningiomas demand nonsurgical approaches. To date, adjuvant hormonal treatment has not proven beneficial. The anticancer drug hydroxyurea was therefore tested for its potential use in the treatment of meningiomas. Early-passaged cell cultures were established from 20 different meningiomas. The addition of 5 X 10−4 and 10−3 M hydroxyurea over a period of 5 to 9 days resulted in a remarkable decrease in cell proliferation and even blocked tumor cell growth when compared with untreated cells. A significant arrest of meningioma cell growth in the S phase of the cell cycle was revealed on DNA flow cytometry. Electron micrographs of hydroxyurea-treated tumor cells showed ultrastructural features consistent with apoptosis, and light microscopy demonstrated DNA fragmentation by in situ DNA strand break labeling. Short-term treatment of meningioma cell cultures with hydroxyurea for 24 to 48 hours resulted in discrete oligonucleosomal fragments (DNA ladder), another characteristic sign of apoptosis. In addition to the in vitro studies, tissue from five different meningiomas was transplanted into nude mice followed by treatment with 0.5 mg/g body weight hydroxyurea over 15 days. In situ DNA strand break labeling demonstrated DNA fragmentation in distinct regions with different tumor cell densities in all hydroxyurea-treated meningioma transplants. These data provide evidence that hydroxyurea is a powerful inhibitor of meningioma cell growth, most likely by causing apoptosis in the tumor cells. Thus, hydroxyurea may be a suitable chemotherapeutic agent for the long-term treatment of unresectable or semi- to malignant meningiomas, or for preventing recurrent growth of meningiomas after resection.


1981 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Kuhn

A method is described that allows investigation of cultured cells at the light or electron microscopical level without changing the culturing conditions or the in situ situation during dehydration or embedding. Fixed and dehydrated cell culture layers were cut into small pieces and separated from the plastic dish by adding propylene oxide. With this simple method we could obtain orientated sections of selected cell groups.


Author(s):  
T. M. Crisp ◽  
F.R. Denys

The purpose of this paper is to present observations on the fine structure of rat granulosa cell cultures grown in the presence of an adenohypophyseal explant and to correlate the morphology of these cells with progestin secretion. Twenty-six day old immature female rats were given a single injection of 5 IU pregnant mares serum gonadotropin (PMS) in order to obtain ovaries with large vesicular follicles. At 66 hrs. post-PMS administration (estrus indicated by vaginal smear cytology), the ovaries were removed and placed in a petri dish containing medium 199 and 100 U penicillin/streptomycin (P/S)/ml. Under a 20X magnification dissecting microscope, some 5-8 vesicular follicles/ovary were punctured and the granulosa cells were expressed into the surrounding medium. The cells were transferred to centrifuge tubes and spun down at 1000 rpm for 5 mins.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Kelly ◽  
Peng-Jui (Ruby) Chen ◽  
Jenna Klubnick ◽  
Daniel J. Blair ◽  
Martin D. Burke

<div> <div> <div> <p>Existing methods for making MIDA boronates require harsh conditions and complex procedures to achieve dehydration. Here we disclose that a pre-dried form of MIDA, MIDA anhydride, acts as both a source of the MIDA ligand and an in situ desiccant to enable a mild and simple MIDA boronate synthesis procedure. This method expands the range of sensitive boronic acids that can be converted into their MIDA boronate counterparts. Further utilizing unique properties of MIDA boronates, we have developed a MIDA Boronate Maker Kit which enables the direct preparation and purification of MIDA boronates from boronic acids using only heating and centrifuge equipment that is widely available in labs that do not specialize in organic synthesis. </p> </div> </div> </div>


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muchen Pan ◽  
Ana L. Alvarez-Cabrera ◽  
Joon S. Kang ◽  
Lihua Wang ◽  
Chunhai Fan ◽  
...  

AbstractMammalian reovirus (MRV) is the prototypical member of genus Orthoreovirus of family Reoviridae. However, lacking high-resolution structures of its RNA polymerase cofactor μ2 and infectious particle, limits understanding of molecular interactions among proteins and RNA, and their contributions to virion assembly and RNA transcription. Here, we report the 3.3 Å-resolution asymmetric reconstruction of transcribing MRV and in situ atomic models of its capsid proteins, the asymmetrically attached RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) λ3, and RdRp-bound nucleoside triphosphatase μ2 with a unique RNA-binding domain. We reveal molecular interactions among virion proteins and genomic and messenger RNA. Polymerase complexes in three Spinoreovirinae subfamily members are organized with different pseudo-D3d symmetries to engage their highly diversified genomes. The above interactions and those between symmetry-mismatched receptor-binding σ1 trimers and RNA-capping λ2 pentamers balance competing needs of capsid assembly, external protein removal, and allosteric triggering of endogenous RNA transcription, before, during and after infection, respectively.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1635
Author(s):  
Ya Su ◽  
Rongxin Fu ◽  
Wenli Du ◽  
Han Yang ◽  
Li Ma ◽  
...  

Quantitative measurement of single cells can provide in-depth information about cell morphology and metabolism. However, current live-cell imaging techniques have a lack of quantitative detection ability. Herein, we proposed a label-free and quantitative multichannel wide-field interferometric imaging (MWII) technique with femtogram dry mass sensitivity to monitor single-cell metabolism long-term in situ culture. We demonstrated that MWII could reveal the intrinsic status of cells despite fluctuating culture conditions with 3.48 nm optical path difference sensitivity, 0.97 fg dry mass sensitivity and 2.4% average maximum relative change (maximum change/average) in dry mass. Utilizing the MWII system, different intrinsic cell growth characteristics of dry mass between HeLa cells and Human Cervical Epithelial Cells (HCerEpiC) were studied. The dry mass of HeLa cells consistently increased before the M phase, whereas that of HCerEpiC increased and then decreased. The maximum growth rate of HeLa cells was 11.7% higher than that of HCerEpiC. Furthermore, HeLa cells were treated with Gemcitabine to reveal the relationship between single-cell heterogeneity and chemotherapeutic efficacy. The results show that cells with higher nuclear dry mass and nuclear density standard deviations were more likely to survive the chemotherapy. In conclusion, MWII was presented as a technique for single-cell dry mass quantitative measurement, which had significant potential applications for cell growth dynamics research, cell subtype analysis, cell health characterization, medication guidance and adjuvant drug development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1927
Author(s):  
Fuqin Li ◽  
David Jupp ◽  
Thomas Schroeder ◽  
Stephen Sagar ◽  
Joshua Sixsmith ◽  
...  

An atmospheric correction algorithm for medium-resolution satellite data over general water surfaces (open/coastal, estuarine and inland waters) has been assessed in Australian coastal waters. In situ measurements at four match-up sites were used with 21 Landsat 8 images acquired between 2014 and 2017. Three aerosol sources (AERONET, MODIS ocean aerosol and climatology) were used to test the impact of the selection of aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Ångström coefficient on the retrieved accuracy. The initial results showed that the satellite-derived water-leaving reflectance can have good agreement with the in situ measurements, provided that the sun glint is handled effectively. Although the AERONET aerosol data performed best, the contemporary satellite-derived aerosol information from MODIS or an aerosol climatology could also be as effective, and should be assessed with further in situ measurements. Two sun glint correction strategies were assessed for their ability to remove the glint bias. The most successful one used the average of two shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands to represent sun glint and subtracted it from each band. Using this sun glint correction method, the mean all-band error of the retrieved water-leaving reflectance at the Lucinda Jetty Coastal Observatory (LJCO) in north east Australia was close to 4% and unbiased over 14 acquisitions. A persistent bias in the other strategy was likely due to the sky radiance being non-uniform for the selected images. In regard to future options for an operational sun glint correction, the simple method may be sufficient for clear skies until a physically based method has been established.


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