AI Article Synopsis
- Conventional chemical fixatives fail to preserve lipid molecules in cell membranes, making it difficult to study their distribution using standard immunoelectron microscopy.
- A new method involving quick-freezing and freeze-fracture techniques allows for the physical stabilization of membranes.
- This approach enables precise labeling and high-resolution mapping of membrane lipids, specifically gangliosides, on a two-dimensional plane.
Article Abstract
Because chemical fixatives like aldehydes do not work on most lipid molecules in the membrane, small-scale lipid distribution cannot be identified by immunoelectron microscopy in cells fixed by conventional methods. Here we describe a method for physically stabilizing membranes through quick-freezing and freeze-fracture replica formation and for specifically labeling gangliosides for electron microscopy. This method enables the ultrahigh-resolution mapping of membrane lipids including gangliosides within the two-dimensional plane of membranes.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8552-4_11 | DOI Listing |
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