Comparison of Cholesterol Extraction from Tissues During Processing for Electron Microscopic Radioautography

Abstract

Radioautographic studies of lipid metabolism with the electron microscope have been limited by the large losses of lipid which occur during the usual dehydration and infiltration procedures. In this study different methods of processing tissue for electron microscopic radioautography have been compared with respect to the extraction of cholesterol-1, 2-3H from labeled mouse liver and nerve.In all methods primary fixation had been in 10% formalin for several months followed by washing overnight. Post-fixation for one hour in Dalton's chrome osmium and staining in 1% uranyl acetate in 10% formalin resulted in small but constant losses. Four methods were assessed: 1) graded acetone dehydration with propylene oxide and epon-araldite mixture infiltration, 2) exposure to 0.5% digitonin in 50% ethanol for 1 hour before post-fixing in osmium followed by procedure 1, 3) Durcupan embedding, and 4) limited dehydration followed by embedding in an epon:araldite mixture (modified Idelman).