staining procedure, the samples were rinsed with some millilitre
of phosphate buffered solution (PBS, Table 2), covered with 1mL
of the lectin solution (0.1 mg/mL) in a sterile petri dish and
incubated for 4 min at room temperature in the dark. After this
period the liquid was pipetted off, the sample was first rinsed with
1mL PBS solution and then washed in 1mL deionized water for
1 min. Finally, the sample was dried by a stream of sterile nitrogen.
The samples were then analysed with an epi-fluorescence
microscope (AxioImager Z1m, Zeiss), equipped with a mercury
lamp (Zeiss HBO 100) and a halogen lamp (Zeiss HAL 100). The
used objective was a 100 oil-immersion objective Epiplan
NEOFLUAR (100/1.30 Oil 1/0.17).
At least nine up to 12 photos of different spots are taken for
each sample in order to get representative information of the
sample. In images taken by EFM with an appropriate filter set
(Zeiss filter set 09, Carl-Zeiss, Jena; Excitation: BP 450-490).
Green or yellow spots indicate ConA-FITC-stained objects, EPS
and bacteria cells as well.
3 Results