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Fluoropolymer Nanosheet as a Wrapping Mount for High‐Quality Tissue Imaging
Author(s) -
Zhang Hong,
Masuda Ami,
Kawakami Ryosuke,
Yarinome Kenji,
Saito Riku,
Nagase Yu,
Nemoto Tomomi,
Okamura Yosuke
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201703139
Subject(s) - materials science , fluoropolymer , nanosheet , nanotechnology , composite material , polymer , amorphous solid , agarose , shrinkage , biomedical engineering , chromatography , medicine , chemistry , organic chemistry
In the field of biological microscopy technology, it is still a practical challenge to obtain high‐quality tissue images, due to the tissue desiccation that occurs during observations without an effective sample mounting. Inspired by the use of plastic food wrap, this study proposes the use of polymer thin films (also known as nanosheets) to fix the tissue samples. Water‐repellent nanosheets composed of the amorphous fluoropolymer CYTOP are prepared with adjustable thicknesses and their hydrophobicity, transparency, and adhesion strength are evaluated. They show excellent water‐retention effect and work well for sample fixation. By wrapping cleared mouse brain slices with a 133 nm thick CYTOP nanosheet, this study achieves high spatial resolution neuron images while scanning over a large area for a long period of time. No visible artifacts arising from sample shrinkage can be detected. This study also expects that nanosheet wrapping could be effective over a longer time span by combination with conventional agarose embedding.