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Preparation of basal cell membranes for scanning probe microscopy
Author(s) -
Ziegler U,
Vinckier A,
Kernen P,
Zeisel D,
Biber J,
Semenza G,
Murer H,
Groscurth P
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(98)01118-1
Subject(s) - membrane , microscopy , cytoplasm , biophysics , scanning probe microscopy , scanning ion conductance microscopy , chemistry , lysis , fluorescence microscope , materials science , scanning confocal electron microscopy , biology , nanotechnology , biochemistry , fluorescence , pathology , optics , medicine , physics
Scanning probe microscopy has the potential for investigating membranes in a physiological environment. We prepared with a lysis‐squirting protocol basal cell membranes, that are suitable for scanning probe microscopy. Investigations using atomic force microscopy under liquid revealed cellular filaments which correlated perfectly with fluorescently stained actin filaments. Globular structures with a diameter as little as 10 nm could be resolved by stripping cytoplasmic components from the membranes. Therefore, cytoplasmic sides of supported basal cell membranes prove useful to gain high resolution with scanning probe microscopy in studies of plasma membrane associated structures and processes under buffer solution.