Volume 25 Issue 1 January 2011

Axel Gromer and A. Patrick Gunning, Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK
Atomic force microscopy has been used to probe the effect that both adsorbing and non-adsorbing polymers have on the force interactions between oil droplets suspended in aqueous solution. At low polymer concentrations depletion effects were found to predominate in both cases. At higher polymer concentrations steric effects took over which could cause both repulsive and attractive interactions between the droplets. We show that such apparently paradoxical behaviour is rooted in the deformable nature of the oil droplets, illustrating the advantages of studying soft matter systems using AFM which allows the use
of realistic samples.

Jinny J. Yoon,¹ Vithika Suri,² Louise F. B. Nicholson² and Colin R. Green¹
1. Department of Ophthalmology, and 2. Department of Anatomy with Radiology and the Centre for Brain
Research, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
This study aimed to improve existing immunohistochemical methods in order to obtain continuous multi-fluorescence labelling throughout the full thickness of cultured hippocampal slices whilst maintaining structural integrity. Slice cultures, processed as whole mounts for triple immunofluorescence labelling, were examined using a confocal laser scanning microscope. The thickness of the mounted slices and penetration of antibodies were investigated using conventional and bridge mounting techniques and exposing the slices to various detergent concentrations /durations for permeabilization. It was shown that a bridge mounting method after overnight incubation in 1% Triton X-100 provided high quality immunohistochemical data closely reflecting the undisturbed morphology of slice cultures.