Extracellular filaments revealed by affinity capture cryogenic-electron tomography

作者：Leeya Engel, Magda Zaoralová, Momei Zhou, Alexander R. Dunn, Stefan L. Oliver · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-025-64795-z · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications、Microbial Inactivation Methods、Advanced X-ray Imaging Techniques

Cryogenic-electron tomography (cryo-ET) has provided an unprecedented glimpse into the nanoscale architecture of cells by combining cryogenic preservation of biological structures with electron tomography. Micropatterning of extracellular matrix proteins is increasingly used as a method to prepare adherent cell types for cryo-ET as it promotes optimal positioning of cells and subcellular regions of interest for vitrification, cryo-focused ion beam (cryo-FIB) milling, and data acquisition. Here we demonstrate a micropatterning workflow for capturing minimally adherent cell types, human T cells and Jurkat cells, for cryo-FIB and cryo-ET. Our affinity capture system facilitated the nanoscale imaging of Jurkat cells, revealing extracellular filamentous structures. It improved workflow efficiency by consistently producing grids with a sufficient number of well-positioned cells for an entire cryo-FIB session. Affinity capture can be extended to facilitate high-resolution imaging of other adherent and non-adherent cell types with cryo-ET. Cryogenic-electron tomography enables visualization of cellular architecture at the nanoscale, but non-adherent cell positioning on grids remains challenging. Here, authors introduce an affinity capture strategy to position lymphocytes and reveal unexpected extracellular filaments.