Electron microscopy finder-grids link quantitative cytometry with high-resolution confocal imaging in the study of TGF-β1 expression in the small intestine mucosa in growing pigs

A new method is proposed linking the high-throughput quantitative population analysis with high-resolution imaging systems. Samples from piglet small intestine labelled against transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) were overlayed with electron microscopy finder-grids and scanned by SCAN^R scanning cytometer. From the tissue map generated by SCAN^R, regions of interest (ROI) with TGF-β1-positive cells were selected and their coordinates stored from the sample overview. ROI were then located under the confocal microscope enabling detail visualization of the pattern of intracellular localization of the studied cytokine.