Preparation of Frozen Thin Sections of Fresh Tissue for Electron Microscopy

For several years I have been developing a method for cutting frozen thin sections of fresh tissue. Although in this laboratory these sections are being used primarily for autoradiography of diffusible substances (especially steroids), there are also many other uses to which they could be put in cell biology. The essentials of the technique have been published in several abstracts and in a book chapter, and a more complete description is about to be submitted for publication. In this invited talk I will summarize the current routine method, which may be modified to suit particular needs, and will briefly describe the results that are obtained.