A comparative study in the transmission electron microscope and scanning electron microscope of intracellular structures in sheep heart muscle cells.

The internal cellular structures of the sheep ventricular myocardium have been comparatively studied in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) and in the scanning electron microscope (SEM). For TEM studies the tissue was prepared according to standard methods. Thick sections (10 mum) of paraffin embedded material were, after they had been deparaffinized in toluene, critical point dried, coated with gold and examined in the SEM. The comparative TEM and SEM investigations revealed very good correspondence, and it is evident that the described preparation procedure for SEM has preserved the fine structures of myofibrils, mitochondria, T-Tubules and sarcoplasmic reticulum in an excellent life-like pattern. Of special interest was the three-dimensional demonstration of triads and circumferentially arranged T-tubules.