Serial block-face scanning electron microscopy of adherent cells on thin plastic substrate – Data set 03

Serial block-face (SBF) scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used for imaging the entire internal ultrastructure of cells, tissue samples or small organisms. We developed a workflow for SBF SEM of adherent cells, such as Giardia parasites and HeLa cells, attached to the surface of a plastic culture dish, which preserves the interface between cells and plastic substrate. Cells were embedded in situ on their substrate using silicone microwells and were mounted for cross-sectioning which allowed SBF imaging of large volumes and many cells. In total we provide 10 data sets with image series from SBF SEM of Giardia and HeLa cells prepared with protocol variants to improve the workflow. A detailed description of the methods and the data set is provided in the download container.

Data set 03 comprises an image 3D model of a Giardia lamblia cell adhered to the plastic substrate of a culture dish. The model was generated by segmentation of the entire cell, the cell nuclei (red) and the ventral disc cytoskeleton (yellow) in an image series of 276 images which was recorded by SBF SEM (see dataset 01). Section interval was 50 nm and pixel size 10 nm. The data folder contains the model-file (Imaris-format) and a 360° rotation of the model as video file (mp4-format).