Other non-immune stains

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Other non-immune stains

Last updated on Tuesday, February 3 2009 by jdmiles

These stains are ones that you may come across during your rotation or during your reading, but are less frequently used than the ones discussed elsewhere.

These are all tinctorial stains, not immune or histochemical stains.

Click any of the images below for additional descriptions of the individual stains.

Related images:

Bodian Stain - Normal Example
Bodian Stain of normal neuropil. This silver based histochemical stain is optimized toward the demonstration of neuronal processes, particularly axons. It has largely been replaced by immunohistochemical staining for phosphorylated neurofilaments.

Cresyl Violet - Normal Example
Cresyl violet stain of a slice of normal cerebral hemisphere. This stain selectively binds to nucleic acids, increasing contrast between cellular nuclei and the extracellular environment as well as allowing easy distinction of Nissl containing neurons (the...

Berlin Blue iron stain
This is a berlin blue stain for ferric iron, in an organized neonatal white matter hemorrhage.

Toluidine staining of resin or plastic embedded peripheral nerve.
Toluidine blue is a simple metachromatic stain used to visualize endoneurial elements in resin or plastic embedded specimens. Nuclei, myelin, and red blood cells stain dark blue. Cell cytoplasm and extracellular protein stains light blue, and axon cylinders stain very light blue to white...

Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) stain of normal muscle.
Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) stains mucopolysaccharides, basement membrane material, and glycogen (the latter as long as pretreatment with diastase is avoided). In addition to glycogen storage disease, increased glycogen staining may be seen in core myopathies.

Oil red O stain of normal muscle.
Oil red O stains phospholipid within the cytoplasm of muscle fibers. Type I fibers normally contain greater quantities of lipid then due type II fibers, as can be seen here. In addition to lipid storage myopathies, increased oil red os staining can be seen in a variety of mitochondrial diseases.

Congo Red - Example of pathological findings
Congo Red stain of a temporal artery biopsy form a patient with amyloid angiopathy. Although biopsied to exclude a diagnosis of temporal arteritis, subsequent evaluation revealed a monoclonal gammopathy and multiple myeloma.

Related review questions:

Basic Stains 01
The image above shows a slice of brain from a person who had encephalitis caused by Candida. The tissue is stained with periodic acid Schiff (PAS) stain. Which of the following does PAS stain for