Stains

🌟All abut STAINS 🌟

1. Aldehyde Fuchsin
- can be used to stain pancreatic islet beta cell
granules
2. Alician Blue
- a Mucin stain (a category of histology stains,
listed below)
- can stain mucins and mucosubstances blue (due
to the copper in the stain)
3. Alizarin Red S
- can be used to identify calcium in tissue
sections
- used on the Dupont ACA analyzer to measure
serum calcium photometrically
4. Alkaline Phosphatase
- can be used to stain endothelial cells
5. Azan Stain
- can be used to differentiate osteoid from
mineralised bone
6. Bielschowsky Stain
- can be used to show reticular fibres
- used for showing neurofibrillary tangles and
senile plaques
- uses the chemical element silver (Ag)
7. Cajal Stain
- can be used on nervous tissue.
8. Congo Red
- used to stain amyloid fibres (to appear orange/
red).
9. Cresyl Violet
- will stain both neurons and glia
- bonds with acidic parts of cells such as
ribosomes , nuclei and nucleoli
0. Eosin
- commonly used for general histology staining
when paired with haematoxylin - see Hematoxylin
and Eosin (H&E)
1. Fontana-Masson
- uses the chemical element silver (Ag)
- stains argentaffin granules and melanin black -
while also staining nuclei pink/red and cytoplasm
light pink
- a specific example of a Melanin Stain (general
category of histology stains)
2. Giemsa Stain
- a Romanowski (also written "Romanowsky") type
stain
- used for peripheral blood smears, i.e. a thin
layer of blood smeared on a microscope slide and
used for bone marrow.
- used to study parasites and malaria
3. Golgi Stain
- can be used to stain neurons
4. Gomori Trichrome
- trichrome histology stains are formed from a
mixture of three dyes
- Gomori's trichrome stains connective tissue and
collagen (green or blue), muscle, keratin and
cytoplasm (red) and nuclei (grey/blue/black)
5. Heidenhain's AZAN trichrome stain
- trichrome histology stains are formed from a
mixture of three dyes
- can be used to distinguish cells from
extracellular components
- stains connective tissues, e.g. muscle fibres,
cartilage and bone matrices .
- a similar stain to Mallory Trichome (listed
below). These histology stains differ because
Heidenhain introduced azocarmine G in place of the
acid fuchsine of Mallory's stain. He also added
controlled destaining resulting in different colours
of cell nuclei (dark red), collagen (blue) and a
various of colours in cytoplasm.
6. Hematoxylin
- commonly used for general histology staining
when paired with eosin - see Hematoxylin and
Eosin (H&E)
7. Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E)
- standard histology stain and the most frequently
used combination of stains used in the histology
lab for general purpose staining - often used for
routine tissue preparation
- Hematoxylin binds to acidic structures, staining
them blue-purple. Hence it binds and stains
nucleic acids ( DNA and RNA), so stains the nuclei
of cells blue.
- Eosin binds to and stains basic structures pink,
e.g. cytoplasm , muscle, connective tissue, colloid
and red blood cells are stained pink-red.
8. Iron Hematoxylin
- stains nuclei bluish/black.
9. Luna Stain
- can be used to demonstrate elastin and mast
cells
0. Luxol Fast Blue
- the alcohol soluble equivalent of Alician Blue
(see above)
- used to observe myelin (myelin stains blue to
blue/green, neurons to violet, red blood cells to
blue)
1. Mallory Trichrome
- trichrome histology stains are formed from a
mixture of three dyes
- used on connective tissue to indicate collagen
and reticular fibers.
- uses acid fuchsine followed by a solution
containing PTA, orange G and aniline blue.
2. Masson Trichrome
- trichrome histology stains are formed from a
mixture of three dyes
- can be used to distinguish between cellular
items & extracellular items
- can be used on connective tissue.
3. Melanin Stains
- a category of histology stains used to stain
melanin (which is located in the skin, eyes, and
melanomas)
- can be used to study melanin pigment in cells of
malignant melanoma
- Fontana-Masson (listed above) is a specific
example of a melanin stain.
4. Movat's Pentachrome Stain
- can be used to study connective tissue.
5. Mucicarmine
- a very specific Mucin Stain
- can be used to observe epithelial mucins