Atomic force microscopy imaging of the human trigeminal ganglion

This paper describes an investigation of gangliocytes via imaging semithin sections of two human trigeminal ganglia with an atomic force microscope (A FM). Whereas semithin sections are usually employed for transmission electr on microscopy, we adopted this special type of sample preparation for our A FM studies to extract topographical data from the gangliocyte itself and fr om the nucleus, the nucleolus, the crystal-arranged lipofuscin granules, an d the cell-surrounding mantle cells; simultaneously we characterized the sa mples with error signal mode. This AFM-related technique revealed no inform ation concerning friction force and elasticity due to the presence of the e mbedding material (epoxy), but it gave additional topographical contrast. T hese are the first images of the human trigeminal ganglion by AFM. (C) 2001 Academic Press.