High-voltage electron microscopic studies of inflammatory cell attachment during blood-brain barrier inflammation

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested the usefulness of high-voltage electron microscopy (HVEM) for investigating blood-bram barrier (BBB) injury and the mechanism of inflammatory-cell (IC) attachment. These studies indicated that, in evaluating standard conventional thin sections, one might miss cellular attachment sites of ICs in their process of attaching to the luminal endothelial cell (EC) surface of cerebral blood vessels. Our current studies in animals subjected to autoimmune disease suggest that HVEM may be useful in localizing precise receptor sites involved in early IC attachment.Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) was induced in mice and rats according to standard procedures. Tissue samples from cerebellum, thalamus or spinal cords were embedded in plastic following vascular perfusion with buffered aldehyde. Thick (0.5-0.7 μm) sections were cut on glass knives and collected on Formvar-coated slot grids stained with uranylacetate and lead citrate and examined with the AEI EM7 1.2 MV HVEM in Albany, NY at 1000 kV.