Chapter 4 Quantification of Structures and Gold Labeling in Transmission Electron Microscopy

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Publisher Summary This chapter describes a range of quantitative tools that can be applied to ultrathin sections of biological material. The transmission electron microscopy quantitative estimations are generally made on images taken of ultrathin sections, but the very first concern of any well designed study is the origin of these images. The distribution of gold labeling over an array of cellular structures displayed in ultrathin sections can be estimated in two main ways. A major use of profile data on ultrathin sections is in assessing gold particle labeling of cell components. The ultrathin sections are exposed to antibodies localized using particles of colloidal gold, and because the section presents the components to the gold labeling system it is crucial to follow the sampling scheme already outlined. This ensures an unbiased sample of cell components is contained in the sections and can gain access to the gold labeling system. Colloidal gold is particulate and can be quantified as a signal that represents the underlying component, and the two principal readouts of interest to cell biologists are the distribution and concentration of gold labeling. New methods have been developed to evaluate labeling distributions and labeling intensities by statistical means.