Membrane, artificial electron micrographs

A EXPERIMENTAL FIGURE 17-8 Vesicle buds can be visualized during in vitro budding reactions. When purified COPII coat components are incubated with isolated ER vesicles or artificial phospholipid vesicles (liposomes), polymerization of the coat proteins on the vesicle surface induces emergence of highly curved buds. In this electron micrograph of an in vitro budding reaction, note the distinct membrane coat, visible as a dark protein layer, present on the vesicle buds. [From K. Matsuoka etal., 1988, Ce//93(2) 263.[... 

Figure 1 shows a electron micrograph of a cuprammonium rayon hollow fiber made by wet spinning. The sample was prepared by fixing the network structure just after coagulation to maintain it in a condition similar to the wet state. We can see a fine network in Figure 1. This fine network cannot be seen after drying the hollow fiber, presumably because of contraction. However, the fine network reappears when the dry hollow fiber is swollen by water as shown in Figure 2. The network of the membrane once dried and then swollen in water becones somewhat smaller than the original. The properties of membranes for artificial kidneys depend strongly on this fine network structure.

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