Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway 47500, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
  • 2 Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 3 Faculty of Resource Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Sarawak, Malaysia
  • 4 Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
  • 5 School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway 47500, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia; Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA. Electronic address: kumaran.narayanan@monash.edu
Anal Biochem, 2017 10 01;534:46-48.
PMID: 28693990 DOI: 10.1016/j.ab.2017.07.008

Abstract

Sample preparation for scanning electron microscope analysis involves reagents and equipment that are expensive and often hazardous. Here we demonstrate a circumvention of Osmium tetroxide and critical point drying, greatly reducing the duration, complexity and cost of the process. We captured early stage interactions of invasive-bacteria and HeLa cells during the process of bacteria-mediated gene delivery and illustrate sufficient clarity can be obtained using this procedure to preserve and clearly visualize relevant cellular structures. This protocol is significantly cheaper and easier to adapt compared to conventional methods, and will allow routine preparation/viewing of eukaryotic or bacterial samples for basic morphological studies.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.