A METHOD FOR ANCHORING ROUND SHAPED CELLS FOR ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPEIMAGING

More and more researchers are interested in imaging living (Henderson, 1994) or fixed cells in their natural environment using the atomic fo rce microscope (AFM). However, the AFM tip interacts strongly with the sample, and its z range freedom is limited to a few micrometers. This means that the cells to be imaged have to be strongly attached to the substrate, and imaging is restricted to cells having a flattened shap e. Here we propose a simple and inexpensive solution to overcome these limitations. The method we propose is trapping living round shaped ce lls in a Millipore filter with a pore size comparable to the dimension s of the cell. The highest part of some of the blocked cells protrude through the holes of the filter and can this way be easily observed us ing the AFM without detachment.