TEM Morphometry Reveals Membrane Deficits in Parietal Cells Lacking Specific Ion Transporters

The late 1940s marked the appearance of the first publications using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and by 1950, with improved embedding and sectioning methodology, reports began to include mammalian tissues (PubMed). However, 15 years lapsed before morphometry and stereology were integrated into TEM studies (Loud 1965; Elias 1971; Weibel 1969). The utility of a quantitative approach to electron microscopy was obvious, but its popularity has waxed and waned considerably over the last half century; its staunch supporters, however, have stayed the course (Weibel 2001; Diaspro 2004). Early computers, though slow and unreliable, brought some degree of automation to morphometry in the 1980s, but did little to ease tedium or increase accuracy (Caruntu 2002).