Development of a simple, cost-effective, semi-correlative light and electron microscopy method to allow the immunoelectron localisation of non-uniformly distributed placental proteins

Immunoelectron microscopy is wrought with technical limitations that complicate its use. However, advances in correlative light and electron microscopy have recently lead to improvements in this field. We report the development of a semi-correlative approach to investigate the ultrastructural location of an antiphospholipid antibody within the syncytiotrophoblast. This method offers several advantages over existing methodologies, since it preserves antigenicity, shows good immunolabel penetrability and does not require specialized equipment. The use of a pre-embedding screen has also allowed us to target individual placental villi and overcome sampling limitations of the electron microscope. This simple, cost-effective method is likely to find widespread application in placental research.