| Abstract: | Many transmission electron microscopes are available which can be used to examine biological material in 0.25–0.50-μm-thick sections. When compared to the traditional thin section, these “semithick” sections possess a number of inherent advantages: They can be screened for content with the phase contrast light microscope, they facilitate many types of studies requiring an analysis of serial sections, and they are frequently the optimum thickness for stereomicroscopy. Structures such as microtubule-associated components, as well as structural relationships between cellular constituents, may also be clearly visible in semithick sections which are not visible, or go unnoticed, in thin sections. Together these advantages enable an investigator to obtain a more complete three-dimensional picture of a cell or cell component in a significantly (i.e., up to 90%) shorter period of time than would be required if thin sections were used. Semithick sections may, therefore, make a study feasible which is not approachable, or which is approachable only with great difficulty, by conventional thin sectioning techniques. |
