ISSN:
0741-0581
Keywords:
Fixation
;
Processing
;
Electron microscopy
;
Human biopsies
;
Diagnosis
;
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Natural Sciences in General
Notes:
Transmission electron microscopy serves a useful and often diagnostic purpose in the analysis of human disease. The emerging discipline of ultrastructural pathology serves a much wider field than that of kidney pathology and, of necessity, requires two essential elements. These are (1) the interpretive knowledge which covers all cells in all tissues which compose all organs, their normal substructural composition, and the ultrastructural expression of all of the basic mechanisms of the pathobiology of human disease, and (2) technically excellent preparations of these varied specimens.In this review, we emphasize the technical aspects necessary for the preparation of these specimens. These include the handling of varied specimens from the time of interruption of blood flow to the sample until fixation, fixation methodology, and routine processing methods for electron microscopy. Specialized techniques that are readily accomplished in an ultrastructural pathology service laboratory are also described. These include methods for the demonstration of glycogen, peroxidase(s), the glycocalyx. We also describe the preparation of permanent, alkaline Giemsa-stained 1-μm plastic sections for light microscopic diagnosis, the use of an agar-pelleting technique to change cell suspensions into readily handled blocks, and the use of Spurr's (J. Ultrastruct. Res. 26:31, 1969) low viscosity embedding for all skin and heavily collagenized specimens.The diagnostic report for individual samples can routinely be available within 24 hours of specimen arrival in the ultrastructural pathology laboratory with the methods we review here. Examples of these varied samples of human tissues and cells and methods for preparing them are illustrated. We have found such methods useful for diagnostic purposes, e.g., to identify the site of origin of a brain metastasis as the alveolar cell (type II pneumocyte) of the lung, based on the presence of typical lamellar (surfactant) bodies in the metastatic tumor cells (Dvorak and Monahan-Earley: Norelco Reporter 32:29-36, 1985c), as well as to describe for the first time a new tumor, such as the gut autonomic nerve (GAN) tumor (Walker and Dvorak: Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. 110:309-316, 1986) or a cell injury process, axonal necrosis, to be characteristic of Crohn's disease (Dvorak et al.: Hum. Pathol. 11:620-634, 1980d; Dvorak and Silen: Ann. Surg. 201:53-63, 1985).
Additional Material:
49 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jemt.1060060302
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