MUSCLE SAMPLES FOR SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY: PREPARATIVE TECHNIQUES AND GENERAL MORPHOLOGY

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Abstract
Bovine semitendinosus and longissimus dorsi, both freshly slaughtered and aged, were prepared by various techniques prior to examination by SEM. The important problems of sample preparation were freeze damage, production of surface artifacts, and tissue shrinkage. Ethanol freeze fracture of fixed material followed by critical point drying or air drying from solvent circumvented most of the difficulties and provided the most useful specimens. Cleavage of muscle tissue by freeze fracture exposed muscle cell structures for observation. Useful magnifications up to 20,000 × were obtained and identification was made of A, I and H bands, nuclei, and structures suggestive of mitochondria and muscle cell triads. The structural consequences of cold shortening and rigor were observed.

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