METHOD FOR PREPARING SAMPLE FOR OBSERVING ICE CRYSTAL OF FREEZING MATERIAL

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To observe trails of ice crystal forms of a freezing material, especially frozen plant tissues and cells and destructive states of the surrounding tissues of the freezing material, to sharply shorten time required for an immersion substitution and fixation process, and to exactly observe a state of an ice crystal in freezing.SOLUTION: After performing embedding processing of a freezing material 10 by using an embedding material 120 for freezing under freezing temperature, the freezing material 10 is stuck to a plastic film 124. Next, the freezing material 10 is thinly sliced to thickness of 3-10 μm with a blade 126, ventilation drying is performed to a thin slice under a freezing temperature condition or the thin slice is dried by blowing cold air, and the ice crystal is sublimated. Next, the thin slice is immersed in organic solvent under room temperature to perform fixation processing, and after that, dyed to prepare a thin slice sample 24. Since the thin slice thinly sliced by being stuck to the film 124 is immersed and fixed by the organic solvent, time required for an immersion and fixation process 20 is sharply reduced.