The Preparation of Frozen-dried Tissue for Electron Microscopy

A method is described for the preparation of liver by freezing and drying which avoids the formation of ice crystals visible with the electron microscope. Such dried preparations after postfixation may be stained with numerous reagents. They may also be stained for cytochemical study of ribonucleic and desoxyribonucleic acids, and for glycogen. Details of the methods are given, together with a brief justification of them through a summary of the controls employed. Further details, as well as a description of the submicroscopic morphology following the use of the methods, will be described elsewhere.