Tilt Series Transmission Electron Tomography of Glycocalyx

If one tilts a sample though different angles a 3D image can be formed as with CT Scans in a hospital. In this case to achieve nanoscale accuracy we put gold markers on the surface so each angle can be realigned. An aligned tilt series of images is shown left. The section is thicker than normal transmission electron microscopy so each image looks a little blurry.

When reconstructed into a 3D stack as the bottom left sequence fine details can now be observed that could not before. We can segment the image into different structures and visualise this in a 3D projection as below.

These videos are of the glomerular filtration barrier (kidney filtration capillary) adapted from Arkill et al 2014 incorporating the LaDy GAGa staining technique from Arkill et al 2012. Yellow = Glycocalyx, Blue = Endothelial cell, Red = Glomerular Basement Membrane and Green = Podocyte foot processes