Comparative electron microscopic studies of single biomolecules negatively stained and freeze-dried metal-shadowed

This paper deals with the development of physical fixation and contrasting procedures for the electron microscopic structure analysis of isolated biomolecules. It has been shown on isolated antibodies (IgG) that these preparation methods give better preservation of biomolecules than the commonly practiced chemical fixation and staining techniques. With regard to morphology and size, the data from the electron microscopic structure analysis of the tested antibodies (IgG) are in good agreement with those from X-ray structure analysis. With isolated ribosomal 40S subunits, the influence of chemical fixation and staining techniques on both the structure preservation and contrast medium distribution has been demonstrated.