Sectioning Techniques for Electron Microscopy Using a Conventional Microtome

Summary

Conventional histological techniques have been modified so that is is possible consistently to cut 0.2 micron sections for use with the electron microscope. The material must be doubly embedded in strong collodion and hard paraffin. The face of the block to be cut must be small, and the tilt of the knife must be precisely adjusted.

Procedures have been developed for partly or wholly removing the embedding media, and mounting the sections for the electron microscope.

Micrographs of rat liver sections show that the principal artefacts are due to fixation rather than subsequent treatments.