A chlorine-free embedding medium for use in X-ray analytical electron microscope localisation of chloride in biological tissues

Abstract

A number of embedding media were checked for chlorine content by means of X-ray analytical electron microscopy (EMMA-4 electron microscope and KEVEX energy dispersive analyser). It was shown that the technique based on glutaraldehyde-urea polymerisation (Pease and Peterson, 1972) is satisfactory for use in ultrastructural detection of chloride ions by means of precipitation with silver ions. Glutaraldehyde-urea does not contain chloride in detectable amounts and has the added advantage that dehydration and long periods of infiltration are not required. © 1974 Springer-Verlag.