Schneider Jan Philipp, Hegermann Jan, Wrede Christoph
Institute of Functional and Applied Anatomy, Hannover Medical School, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
Biomedical Research in Endstage and Obstructive Lung Disease Hannover (BREATH), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), 30625, Hannover, Germany.
Histochem Cell Biol. 2021 Feb;155(2):241-260. doi: 10.1007/s00418-020-01916-3. Epub 2020 Sep 17.
Since its entry into biomedical research in the first half of the twentieth century, electron microscopy has been a valuable tool for lung researchers to explore the lung's delicate ultrastructure. Among others, it proved the existence of a continuous alveolar epithelium and demonstrated the surfactant lining layer. With the establishment of serial sectioning transmission electron microscopy, as the first "volume electron microscopic" technique, electron microscopy entered the third dimension and investigations of the lung's three-dimensional ultrastructure became possible. Over the years, further techniques, ranging from electron tomography over serial block-face and focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy to array tomography became available. All techniques cover different volumes and resolutions, and, thus, different scientific questions. This review gives an overview of these techniques and their application in lung research, focusing on their fields of application and practical implementation. Furthermore, an introduction is given how the output raw data are processed and the final three-dimensional models can be generated.
自20世纪上半叶进入生物医学研究领域以来，电子显微镜一直是肺部研究人员探索肺部精细超微结构的宝贵工具。其中，它证明了连续肺泡上皮的存在，并展示了表面活性物质衬里层。随着作为第一种“体积电子显微镜”技术的连续切片透射电子显微镜的建立，电子显微镜进入了三维领域，对肺部三维超微结构的研究成为可能。多年来，出现了从电子断层扫描、连续块面和聚焦离子束扫描电子显微镜到阵列断层扫描等更多技术。所有技术覆盖不同的体积和分辨率，因此也适用于不同的科学问题。本综述概述了这些技术及其在肺部研究中的应用，重点介绍了它们的应用领域和实际操作。此外，还介绍了如何处理输出的原始数据以及生成最终的三维模型。
