Siegel J H
Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208.
J Electron Microsc Tech. 1990 Jul;15(3):197-208. doi: 10.1002/jemt.1060150302.
The afferent innervation pattern of inner hair cells in the apex of the guinea pig cochlea was studied using serial reconstruction of semithick (0.25-micron) sections and high-voltage electron microscopy (HVEM). This thickness produced a good compromise between the ability to resolve details of the synaptic contacts between the hair cells and sensory neurons and the number of sections required to reconstruct the nerve terminals within the receptor organ. The use of a goniometer allowed the sections to be tilted to angles optimum for viewing either the synaptic membrane specializations or the presynaptic bodies. Reasonably good images of 0.25-micron sections could be obtained using a conventional 120-keV microscope, but the images produced by the HVEM were clearly superior. The sensory nerve terminals and hair cells were reconstructed using a microcomputer-based computer-aided-design system. Nerve terminals with complex shapes could be successfully rendered as surface models viewed as stereo pairs. The advantages and limitations of the techniques used are discussed.
采用半厚（0.25微米）切片的连续重建技术和高压电子显微镜（HVEM），对豚鼠耳蜗顶端内毛细胞的传入神经支配模式进行了研究。这种厚度在分辨毛细胞与感觉神经元之间突触接触细节的能力和重建受体器官内神经末梢所需的切片数量之间取得了良好的平衡。使用测角仪可将切片倾斜到最佳角度，以便观察突触膜特化结构或突触前小体。使用传统的120keV显微镜可以获得0.25微米切片的相当不错的图像，但HVEM产生的图像明显更优。使用基于微型计算机的计算机辅助设计系统对感觉神经末梢和毛细胞进行了重建。形状复杂的神经末梢可以成功地呈现为立体对形式的表面模型。讨论了所用技术的优点和局限性。
