Sectioning and Scanning Electron Microscopy for Studies on the Embryonic Development

Abstract

A new method for an examination of the sectional plane with a simultaneous visualization of the three dimensional morphology is introduced. which is a combination of two classical methods; reconstruction of serially sectioned slides and scanning electron microscopy. Sectional surface was made either by serial step sectioning of an agar block using vibratome, or by cryosectioning of a frozen specimen in gelatinous media. Some histological techniques could be applied on the sections obtained and the rest of the specimens were studied by scanning electron microscopy. Step sectioning of an agar block was more useful for a routine screening procedure and selected slices were processed further to the conventional histological sectioning and to the scanning electron microscopy. Cryosectioning was useful when we need a special sectional plane and when the object is too small for the sectioning with vibratome. Our method is useful in the study of any small object with a complex internal structure although we found it the most useful in our study on the embryonic development.