Quantitative analysis and cartography in scanning electron microscopy: application to the study of bacterial adhesion to respiratory epithelium

Abstract

This paper describes the coupling between a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an image analysis workstation. The system was designed in order to drive the SEM and to analyse any sample. It allows automatic (edge detection) or semiautomatic (pointing, marking, drawing) object detection. Two types of data can be obtained: (1) topographical information, such as the location of the object within a region of interest drawn at any magnification of the microscope, or (2) quantitative data, such as morphometric characteristics of objects. In addition, high resolution maps of the section, regions of interest, and objects can be obtained with a laser printer. This software was first applied to quantitate the adhesion of the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa to human respiratory epithelial cells in culture. P. aeruginosa was shown associated with ciliated cells. The second application concerned the study of the distribution of specific carbohydrate residues at the surface of the respiratory cells. The gal residues were revealed using the lectin Ricinus communis agglutinin II, adsorbed to colloidal gold particles. A relationship between the presence of adherent bacteria and labelling was shown.