Cryofixation technique

Hodson MJ, Sangster AG. Techniques for the microanalysis of higher plants with particular reference to silicon in cryofixed wheat tissues. Scanning Microsc 1990 4 407-408. 

Apart from the minor changes to the above procedure to compensate for different types of tissue, a significant change to fixation will normally be necessary to accommodate immunohistochemical techniques, since antigens may be destroyed by the fixation. This may be a change to 0.5% glutaralde-hyde in paraformaldehyde and no postfixation in osmium, to removal of any conventional fixation chemical. In this case cryofixation is the solution, but subsequent sectioning is somewhat more involved. 

Postmortem measurements in laboratory animals supply information about regional or local deposition patterns in the lungs at better spatial resolution than noninvasive techniques can provide. Most frequently, radioactively labeled particles are applied, but magnetically labeled particles, microspheres, or fluorescent particles have also been used to quantify deposition throughout the lung on a macroscopic or microscopic level (79). Most of the invasive techniques require special lung fixation procedures before retention analysis to avoid translocation or particle loss during the fixation procedure (11,74). Rapid microwave fixation (80-82), intravascular perfusion techniques (74,83), and cryofixation (84) have been applied (see also Chap. 6). 

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