4.10. Electron Microscopy
TRANSMISSION, TEM
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM, Hitachi H-7800; Ibaraki, Japan) at the Raydel Research Institute (Daegu, Korea) was performed at an acceleration voltage of 80 kV. VLDL and LDL were stained negatively with 1% sodium phosphotungstate (PTA; pH 7.4) with a final apolipoprotein concentration of 0.3 mg/mL in TBS. Five μL of the lipoprotein suspension was blotted with filter paper and replaced immediately with a 5 μL droplet of 1% PTA. After a few seconds, the stained lipoprotein fraction was blotted onto a Formvar carbon-coated 300 mesh copper grid and air-dried. The shape and size of the LDL were determined by TEM at 40,000× magnification, according to a previous report [