Three dimensional electron microscopy of cellular organelles by serial block face SEM and ET

Novel serial imaging methods using scanning electron microscopy may be used for 3D morphological studies of plastic embedded biological specimens. Serial block face SEM has already proven an undisputable position in 3D-EM studies of tissues, but it has a lot of potential in cell biology applications too. Electron tomography can be used to complement those studies where higher resolution is needed. In this article we present examples of utilizing these two 3D-EM techniques to study cellular organelles.