Immunogold localization of placental lactogen and the SBU-3 antigen by cryoultramicrotomy at implantation in the sheep

1987 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-512
Author(s):  
G. Morgan ◽  
F.B. Wooding ◽  
M.R. Brandon

In the sheep, granulated trophectodermal binucleate cells (BNC) appear at implantation 16 days post coitum (dpc) and persist throughout pregnancy. Conventional immunocytochemical techniques at both light and electron microscope levels have indicated the presence of the ovine placental lactogen (oPL) hormone in the granules but no earlier than 22 dpc, when the level was very low. Immunofluorescent studies using glycolmethacrylate sections between 15 and 55 dpc suggest a completely different distribution of oPL restricted to uninucleate cells with none in the BNC. Using the most sensitive method available, immunocytochemistry on ultrathin frozen sections, the results in this paper demonstrate that BNC granules contain oPL at their earliest appearance (16–17 dpc). No significant localization was found in any uninucleate cell. In contrast, another molecule, the SBU-3 antigen, which is demonstrated in BNC granules later in pregnancy, is not present at the earliest stages but appears between 24 and 28 dpc coincident with the development of the foetal cotyledonary villi. The significance of these results for BNC function are discussed briefly.

1995 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 217-230
Author(s):  
A. Kent Christensen ◽  
Terry B. Lowry

Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) has long been a standard reagent used in preparing tissues for light and electron microscopy. After fixation, tissues are usually dehydrated with ethanol before being embedded in paraffin or plastic. In this study we show that the ethanol-infiltrated tissue can be frozen and sectioned directly without embedding. When tissue impregnated with ethanol is cooled below about −117°C with liquid nitrogen, the ethanol solidifies without appreciable crystallization. The frozen tissue can then be sectioned in a commercial cryoultramicrotome that is set at −155 to −170°C to produce semithin frozen sections (0.5 to 3 μm thick) for light microscopy or ultrathin frozen sections (50 to 100 nm thick) for electron microscopy. Sections are picked up and mounted on glass slides or EM grids by means that are in current use for ice ultrathin frozen sectioning. Because there is no apparent freezing damage, the morphology in these ethanol frozen sections of unembedded tissue appears generally quite good, often resembling that obtained by conventional EM techniques. Examples are provided that illustrate the use of this material for immunocytochemistry at the light and electron microscope levels.


Endocrinology ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 116 (5) ◽  
pp. 1983-1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. KENT CHRISTENSEN ◽  
THOMAS E. KOMOROWSKI ◽  
BARRY WILSON ◽  
SYAU-FU MA ◽  
RALPH W. STEVENS

Author(s):  
K. T. Tokuyasu

During the past investigations of immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in ultrathin frozen sections, we found that the degree of negative staining required to delineate u1trastructural details was often too dense for the recognition of ferritin particles. The quality of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections, on the other hand, has generally been far inferior to that attainable in conventional plastic embedded sections, particularly in the definition of membranes. As we discussed before, a main cause of this difficulty seemed to be the vulnerability of frozen sections to the damaging effects of air-water surface tension at the time of drying of the sections.Indeed, we found that the quality of positive staining is greatly improved when positively stained frozen sections are protected against the effects of surface tension by embedding them in thin layers of mechanically stable materials at the time of drying (unpublished).


Author(s):  
Kenjiro Yasuda

Localization of amylase,chymotrypsinogen and trypsinogen in pancreas was demonstrated by Yasuda and Coons (1966), by using fluorescent antibody method. These enzymes were naturally found in the zymogen granules. Among them, amylase showed a diffuse localization around the nucleus, in addition to the zymogen granules. Using ferritin antibody method, scattered ferritin granules were also found around the Golgi area (Yasuda et al.,1967). The recent advance in the tissue preparation enables the antigen to be localized in the ultrathin frozen sections, by applying the labeled antibodies onto the sections instead of staining the tissue en bloc.The present study deals with the comparison of the localization of amylase and lipase demonstrated by applying the bismuth-labeled, peroxidase-labeled and ferritin-labeled antibody methods on the ultrathin frozen sections of pancreas, and on the blocks of the same tissue.


Author(s):  
R. G. Painter ◽  
K. T. Tokuyasu ◽  
S. J. Singer

A technique for localizing intracellular antigens with immunoferritin conjugates directly on ultrathin frozen sections of glutaraldehyde-fixed tissues has been developed. This method overcomes some of the limitations of previously described procedures, since it avoids drastic fixation, dehydration and embedding procedures which could denature many protein antigens.Briefly cells or tissues were fixed with glutaraldehyde (0.5 to 2% for 1 hr), and ultrathin frozen sections were cut and mounted on grids covered with carbon-coated Formvar film by the procedure described previously. Such sections were stained with ferritin-antibody conjugates by methods described elsewhere.


Author(s):  
K. J. Böhm ◽  
a. E. Unger

During the last years it was shown that also by means of cryo-ultra-microtomy a good preservation of substructural details of biological material was possible. However the specimen generally was prefixed in these cases with aldehydes.Preparing ultrathin frozen sections of chemically non-prefixed material commonly was linked up to considerable technical and manual expense and the results were not always satisfying. Furthermore, it seems to be impossible to carry out cytochemical investigations by means of treating sections of unfixed biological material with aqueous solutions.We therefore tried to overcome these difficulties by preparing yeast cells (S. cerevisiae) in the following manner:


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