Histology Articles

Fixing Tissue for Electron Microscopy

The most popular fixatives for TEM work are aldehydes and osmium tetroxide.

The ultrathin sections required in TEM are cut with knives of glass, diamond or sapphire.

Sections for TEM must be less than 80 nm thick in order to allow at least 50% of the electron beam to penetrate the sample.

Although secondary fixation in osmium tetroxide provides some areas of electron density, this is usually not sufficient to provide high contrast, h