Unconventional specimen preparation techniques using high resolution low voltage field emission scanning electron microscopy to study cell motility, host cell invasion, and internal cell structures in Toxoplasma gondii.

Apicomplexan parasites employ complex and unconventional mechanisms for cell locomotion, host cell invasion, and cell division that are only poorly understood. While immunofluorescence and conventional transmission electron microscopy have been used to answer questions about the localization of some cytoskeletal proteins and cell organelles, many questions remain unanswered, partly because new methods are needed to study the complex interactions of cytoskeletal proteins and organelles that play a role in cell locomotion, host cell invasion, and cell division. The choice of fixation and preparation methods has proven critical for the analysis of cytoskeletal proteins because of the rapid turnover of actin filaments and the dense spatial organization of the cytoskeleton and its association with the complex membrane system. Here we introduce new methods to study structural aspects of cytoskeletal motility, host cell invasion, and cell division of Toxoplasma gondii, a most suitable laboratory model that is representative of apicomplexan parasites. The novel approach in our experiments is the use of high resolution low voltage field emission scanning electron microscopy (LVFESEM) combined with two new specimen preparation techniques. The first method uses LVFESEM after membrane extraction and stabilization of the cytoskeleton. This method allows viewing of actin filaments which had not been possible with any other method available so far. The second approach of imaging the parasite's ultrastructure and interactions with host cells uses semithick sections (200 nm) that are resin de-embedded (Ris and Malecki, 1993) and imaged with LVFESEM. This method allows analysis of structural detail in the parasite before and after host cell invasion and interactions with the membrane of the parasitophorous vacuole as well as parasite cell division.