Study Question Sets for Exam 1 Study Question Set 2
Visualizing Cells 1 & 2 - Microscopy, Tissue Preparation, and Staining
Describe the steps involved in preparing a rat liver for staining before
examination with a standard light microscope.
Describe how glutaraldehyde functions as a fixative.
What do the "dehydration" steps used in preparing a tissue specimen
for staining actually do? What is the purpose of "dehydration" for light
microscopy? For TEM?
What is the purpose of a stain for standard light microscopy?
What are the properties of a good "stain" for TEM?
In general terms, describe how a transmission electron microscope forms
an image of a specimen.
Describe how OsO4 functions as a fixative. Why use both glutaraldehyde and OsO4?
What effects do you think fixation in OsO4 would have on the
enzymes present in a piece of tissue? Would fixation in glutaraldehyde be
expected to have the same effects in all cases? Explain.
In general terms, distinguish between the types of information obtained
with Transmission Electron Microscopy and with Scanning Electron Microscopy.
Explain in general the process by which the scanning electron microscope
forms an image of a specimen.
