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A cryoSEM Method for Preservation and Visualization of Calcified Shark Cartilage (And Other Stubborn Heterogeneous Skeletal Tissues)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Mason N. Dean ,
Stanislav N. Gorb  and
Adam P. Summers
Mason N. Dean*
Affiliation:
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA USA
Stanislav N. Gorb
Affiliation:
Evolutionary Biomaterials Group, Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Stuttgart, Germany
Adam P. Summers
Affiliation:
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA USA
*
mdean@uci.edu

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Biological materials interest biologists and engineers for their complex interactions among constituents and unique mechanical properties. While the heterogeneous tissue structure and its material properties are responsible for intriguing biomechanics, they pose challenges for sectioning, particularly in regions with stark tissue boundaries. Microscopists level this playing field when sectioning samples by embedding them in paraffin or plastic; but for scanning electron microscopy, natural morphology must be preserved without sacrificing the sample’s surface contours. Here we outline a simple preparation method for visualizing in cryoSEM the calcified cartilage of sharks and rays (elasmobranch fishes), a layered biocomposite that has traditionally been considered difficult to prepare for microscopy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Microscopy Today , Volume 16 , Issue 6 , November 2008 , pp. 48 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2008

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