Imaging of human colon cancer cells using He-Ion scanning microscopy

Due to its low beam current and charge compensation mechanism He-Ion scanning microscopy is a very promising tool for imaging biological cells. However, to obtain relevant information, the method used for sample preparation is also critical. In this work, we have used a Carl Zeiss Orion Plus helium-ion microscope to study the effect of sample gold coating on the morphology of human colorectal adenocarcinoma Caco2 cells. The fixative glutaraldehyde was used and the selective gold coating of the samples was investigated. A comparative study with standard scanning electron microscopy is presented.