CRYOFIXATION, CRYOSUBSTITUTION, CRYOEMBEDDING FOR ULTRASTRUCTURAL, IMMUNOCYTOCHEMICAL AND MICROANALYTICAL STUDIES

Cryofixation, cryosubstitution and cryoembedding are a set of low-temp erature methods for immunocytochemical and microanalytical ultrastruct ural studies. This review covers the theoretical and practical aspects of these cryomethods, simple, low-cost, safe devices that provide rep roducible results and a summary of recent results. Sections prepared b y these three cryomethods can be used to determine elemental compositi on, molecular composition, functions and 3-D ultrastructure. The infor mation obtained can be treated by multivariate statistical methods. Th us, each cellular compartment can be identified by its morphology, mol ecular and elemental composition and function and changes in these dat a during physiological and pathological processes can be monitored.