Introduction

Abstract

Electron microscopy is one of the great scientific techniques developed in the 20^th century for the study of biological specimens. After the construction of the first electron microscope in the 1930s and subsequent refinement of design, the electron microscope was applied in the field of biology from the 1950s onwards: between the 1960s and 1980s, in particular, it revealed cells and tissues in all their astonishing structural detail, and this structure formed one of the foundations for revolutionising our understanding of cell function. In addition to new research discoveries, electron microscopy was found to be useful clinically. Almost all human diseases, where classical light microscope histopathology had been important for diagnosis and understanding their nature, provided examples where electron microscopy could promote diagnostic precision and advance this understanding. The main examples include: renal disease, neuromuscular disease, tumours, infectious microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, protozoa, fungi), immotile ciliary disease, spermatozoan abnormalities and centriolopathy, metabolic storage diseases, industrial diseases (for example, asbestosis), skin diseases (CADASIL [cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy], Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, bullous diseases) and haematology (anaemias and leukaemias).