ISSN:
0741-0581
Keywords:
Vesicle
;
Freeze-fracture
;
Electron microscopy
;
Size distributions
;
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Natural Sciences in General
Notes:
The most common electron microscopic technique for obtaining information on size distributions of uncollapsed membrane vesicles is based on the method of van Venetie (1980). This technique involves the sizing of only those vesicles that were freeze fractured at their equatorial planes. As a result, only a small number of images can be used to generate size distributions. Further, the technique is susceptible to systematic error. An alternate approach is to consider the complete distribution of image sizes and use this distribution to determine the average size and distribution of the vesicles. It is shown that the mean vesicle size is 4/π times the mean image size. As well, a parameter, m, which can be determined from the image distribution, can be used to characterize the vesicle distribution. The advantage of this new approach is that images of all vesicles are used, leading to a statistically better determination of vesicle sizes.
Additional Material:
9 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jemt.1060170409
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