title: High-pressure freezing of tissue obtained by fine-needle biopsy.
abstract: High-pressure freezing (HPF) permits adequate cryoimmobilization (without detectable ice crystals after freeze-substitution) of biological tissue up to a thickness of about 200 microns. Until now the preparation of tissue prior to freezing has been unsatisfactory: sizing of the tissue to the required dimensions takes minutes, during which structural alterations must occur. We demonstrate that the use of a fine-needle biopsy technique minimizes tissue damage and guarantees sample dimensions close to the optimal thickness for HPF. The tissue cores can be cryoimmobilized within 40 s of excision.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Electron Microscopy I, ETH Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hohenberg
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tobler
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D005615:Freezing; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats