title: Ionic liquid enables simple and rapid sample preparation of human culturing cells for scanning electron microscope analysis.
abstract: Ionic liquid is a kind of salt that stays in a molten state even at room temperature. It does not vaporize at all in vacuum and facilitates electrical conductivity to the sample surfaces for observations with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). In this study, we used an ionic liquid in SEM for the first time to observe fixed human culture cells. The condition for the cell culture using wrapping sheets and SEM settings were varied to elucidate the optimized protocol. Compared to samples prepared by the conventional way, the ionic liquid-treatment of samples gave SEM images of the cellular ultra structures in more detail, enabling observation of microvilli that made bridges between separated cells. In addition, the ionic liquid treatment is less time consuming as well as less laborious compared with the conventional way that includes dehydration, drying, and conductivity treatments. Totally, we concluded the ionic liquid is a useful reagent for SEM sample preparation.
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Institute, Kanazawa Medical University, 1-1 Daigaku, Uchinada-Machi, Kahoku-Gun, Ishikawa 920-0293, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuhito
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishigaki
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Teruaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takehara
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nemoto
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kurihara
authors.forename: Hironori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koga
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takegami
authors.forename: Naohisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tomosugi
authors.forename: Shichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miyazawa
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuwabata
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000494:pharmacology*; D052578:Ionic Liquids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / Q000379:methods*; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: C499119:1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate; D007093:Imidazoles; D052578:Ionic Liquids