Freeze-fracture cytochemistry: thin sections of cells and tissues after labeling of fractures faces.

Experimental details of a new method for the cytochemical characterization of the membrane faces and cytoplasm produced by freeze-fracture of isolated cells and tissues are presented. This new method-"fracture-label"-involves grinding of frozen samples immersed in liquid nitrogen, thawing, cytochemical labeling of the fractured faces, and processing for thin section electron microscopy. Cationized ferritin (at pH. 7.5 and 4.0), colloidal iron, as well as concanavalin A are used to label the fractures faces of leukocytes and Hela cells embedded in a cross-linked matrix of bovine serum albumin and of liver and spleen tissues. Our results show the presence of numerous anionic binding sites on the fracture faces of all plasma and cytoplasmic membranes, and of concanavalin A binding sites preferentially associated to the exoplasmic fracture faces of plasma and nuclear envelope membranes. A proportion of the anionic sites appears to be revealed by, or during, the freeze-fracture process. Colloidal iron labeling also shows preferential association with the chromatin areas of cross-fractured nuclei. The results show that "fracture-label", i.e., the combined application of freeze-fracture and cytochemical labeling techniques, can be used to study the surface chemistry of the fractures faces of biological membranes as well as of cross-fractured cytoplasm.