Kim Ki Woo
Department of Ecology and Environmental System, Kyungpook National University, 37224, Sangju, Republic of Korea.
Appl Microsc. 2021 Nov 4;51(1):16. doi: 10.1186/s42649-021-00065-8.
Electron microscopy (EM) is an essential imaging method in biological sciences. Since biological specimens are exposed to radiation and vacuum conditions during EM observations, they die due to chemical bond breakage and desiccation. However, some organisms belonging to the taxa of bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals (including beetles, ticks, and tardigrades) have been reported to survive hostile scanning EM (SEM) conditions since the onset of EM. The surviving organisms were observed (i) without chemical fixation, (ii) after mounting to a precooled cold stage, (iii) using cryo-SEM, or (iv) after coating with a thin polymer layer, respectively. Combined use of these techniques may provide a better condition for preservation and live imaging of multicellular organisms for a long time beyond live-cell EM.
电子显微镜（EM）是生物科学中一种重要的成像方法。由于生物标本在电子显微镜观察过程中会暴露于辐射和真空条件下，它们会因化学键断裂和脱水而死亡。然而，自电子显微镜问世以来，据报道，一些属于细菌、真菌、植物和动物类群（包括甲虫、蜱虫和缓步动物）的生物体能够在恶劣的扫描电子显微镜（SEM）条件下存活。分别观察到存活的生物体：（i）未经化学固定；（ii）安装到预冷的冷台上之后；（iii）使用低温扫描电子显微镜；或（iv）用薄聚合物层包被之后。联合使用这些技术可能为多细胞生物体的长期保存和活细胞成像提供比活细胞电子显微镜更好的条件。
