1982 Volume 58 Issue 4-6 Pages 797-807
Fresh air-dried spreads and fresh frozen ultrathin sections dried with nitrogen gas flow were evacuated at less than 10-8 torr for more than 10 hr. They were observed by conventional electron microscopy at an accelelation voltage of 40-100 kV. Synaptic boutons filled with synaptic vesicles, ribosomes, vesicular structures, mitochondria containing fine dense granules and thin myelin, were recognized in the fresh spreads of the cerebral cortex. The cell nucleus, cytoplasm, dendrites, myelin and synaptic boutons with mitochondria attached to a cell process were seen in fresh frozen dried sections but no synaptic vesicles were identified. These specimens prepared without any chemical treatment or evaporation are expected to be applicable to various kinds of microbeam analysis.
