Hacker, C, Asadi, J, Pliotas, C orcid.org/0000-0002-4309-4858 et al. (7 more authors) (2016) Nanoparticle suspensions enclosed in methylcellulose: a new approach for quantifying nanoparticles in transmission electron microscopy. Scientific Reports, 6. 25275. ISSN 2045-2322
Abstract
Nanoparticles are of increasing importance in biomedicine but quantification is problematic because current methods depend on indirect measurements at low resolution. Here we describe a new high-resolution method for measuring and quantifying nanoparticles in suspension. It involves premixing nanoparticles in a hydrophilic support medium (methylcellulose) before introducing heavy metal stains for visualization in small air-dried droplets by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The use of methylcellulose avoids artifacts of conventional negative stain-TEM by (1) restricting interactions between the nanoparticles, (2) inhibiting binding to the specimen support films and (3) reducing compression after drying. Methylcellulose embedment provides effective electron imaging of liposomes, nanodiscs and viruses as well as comprehensive visualization of nanoparticle populations in droplets of known size. These qualities facilitate unbiased sampling, rapid size measurement and estimation of nanoparticle numbers by means of ratio counting using a colloidal gold calibrant. Specimen preparation and quantification take minutes and require a few microliters of sample using only basic laboratory equipment and a standard TEM.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biomedical Sciences (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 17 Oct 2018 11:23 |
Last Modified: | 17 Oct 2018 11:23 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/srep25275 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:137278 |