COMMON STAINING SOLUTIONS

Most widely used cytoplasmic stain that serves as the counterstain after Hematoxylin and before Methylene blue

Eosin

Best staining with eosin occurs at what pH?

pH 4.6 to 5

Most commonly used eosin stain

Eosin Y

Also known as Van Gieson’s stain

Acid Fuchsin-Picric acid

Simplest method of differential staining of collagen

Acid Fuchsin-Picric Acid (Van Gieson’s stain)

Color of nuclei in Acid Fuchsin-Picric Acid (Van Gieson’s stain)

Brownish black to black

Color of collagen in Acid Fuchsin-Picric Acid (Van Gieson’s stain)

Pink or deep red

Color of muscle, cytoplasm, RBC, and fibrin in Acid Fuchsin-Picric Acid (Van Gieson’s stain)

Yellow

Most commonly used fluorochrome to demonstrate DNA and RNA

Acridine orange

Color of DNA in Acridine orange

Yellow-green

Color of RNA in Acridine orange

Brick to Orange-red

Water soluble pthalocyanine dye (similar to chlorophyll)

Alcian blue

Produces a striking blue color

Alcian blue

Resistant to counterstaining procedures and more specific for connective tissue and epithelial mucin

Alcian blue

Cytoplasmic stain used for counterstaining of epithelial sections

Aniline blue

Plasma stain utilized for deep staining

Basic fuchsin

Used in staining hemoglobin

Benzidine

Used as a contrast stain for Gram’s technique, acid fast and Papanicolau method

Bismarck brown

Chromatin stain for fresh materials in smear preparations

Carmine

Combined with aluminum chloride (best’s carmine solution) for glycogen staining

Carmine

Mordanted dye acting as a basic dye and staining acidic substances

Mayer’s Carmalum Solution

Recommended for routine staining of fixed sections (gives good nuclear definition when used in conjunction with alum hematoxylin)

Celestine blue

Resistant to strong acid dyes

Celestine blue

Best known as an indicator

Congo red

May be utilized as a stain for axis cylinders in embryo

Congo red

Nuclear pr chromatin stain used in staining amyloid in frozen sections and platelets in blood

Crystal violet

Staining solution formed by mixture of crystal violet, methyl violet, and dextrin

Gentian violet

Used for staining blood to differentiate leukocytes

Giemsa stain

Used in metallic impregnation (composed of gold chloride and mercuric chloride)

Gold sublimate

Oldest of all stains

Iodine

Used in Gram Weigert method of staining microorganisms and fibrin in tissue sections

Gram’s iodine

Used as a test for glycogen, amyloid, and corpora amylacea

Lugol’s iodine

Demonstration of mitochondria

Janus green B

Act as a contrast stain for Ascaris eggs and erythrocytes and as a bacterial spore stain

Malachite green

Used as both a decolorizer and as a counterstain

Malachite green

Stains chromatin green in presence of an acid

Methyl green

• Basic nuclear stain employed with eosin

• Stain for plasma cell

• Used in bacterial evaluation and differentiation

• Used in cytological examinations of fresh sputum for malignant cell

Methylene blue

Mixture of azures and thiazoles

Polychrome methylene blue

Color of nuclei in methylene blue

Blue

Color cartilage matrix, mucin, mast cell granules, connective tissues

Reddish-violet

Metachromatic dye formed when methylene blue is heated in fixed alkali or alkali carbonate

Methylene violet

Color of leukocytes in Methylene violet with the presence of Methylene blue

Reddish-purple

Basic dye observing cell granules and vacuoles of phagocytic cells

Neutral red

Used as a substitute for carbol fuchsin in acid fast staining

Night blue

Excellent stain for elastic fibers

Orcein

Recommended in dermatological studies, demonstrates the finest and most delicate fibers in skin

Orcein

May be used to stain fat

Osmium Tetroxide

Fat reduces osmium tetroxide to osmium dioxide and it is stained ______

Black

Act as a contrast stain to acid fuchsin (in demonstration of collagen using Van Gieson’s stain)

Picric acid

• Acts as cytoplasmic stain in contrast to basic dyes

• Counterstain to Crystal violet

• Tissue fixative and a decalcifying agent

Picric acid

Colored salt of ferric ferrocyanide normally utilized in paints

Prussian blue

Used as an intravital stain for the circulatory system

Prussian blue

Used with osmic acid to fix spirochetes, reticulum, and other fiber stains

Silver nitrate

• Nuclear stain for fixed tissues

• Used as a substitute for thionine in frozen tissue section

• Recommended for Nissl granules staining and chromophilic granules

Toluidine blue

Used for demonstration of neuroglia in frozen section

Victorian blue