Abstract
WORK in this Department, to be published elsewhere, has shown that several histological methods for the demonstration of mucin depend for their selectivity on the use of cations of large size. Thus alcian blue, with a molecular weight of about 1,341 (ref. 1), is almost specific for acid mucins, being apparently unable to enter other, more dense, basophilic structures. The dialysed iron method2 similarly depends on the use of large particles (colloidal ferric hydroxide), while in Southgate's mucicarmine the small carmine molecule is probably adsorbed on to colloidal aluminium hydroxide.
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References
- 1
Gurr, E., Encyclopædia of Microscopic Stains (Leonard Hill (Books), Ltd., London, 1960).
- 2
Hale, C. W., Nature, 157, 802 (1946).
- 3
Lison, L., Quart. J. Micro. Sci., 96, 227 (1955).
- 4
Kurnick, N. B., Int. Rev. Cytol., 4, 221 (1955).
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Baker, J. R., Principles of Biological Microtechnique (Methuen and Co., Ltd., London, 1958).
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Affiliations
Department of Anatomy, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, Hospital St., Johannesburg
- D. J. GOLDSTEIN
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Further reading
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The effect of pH on Alcian Blue staining of epithelial acid glycoproteins. I. Sialomucins and sulphomucins (singly or in simple combinations)
The Histochemical Journal (1973)
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Measurements of the affinities of basic and ?mordant? dyes for various tissue substrates
Histochemie (1973)
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Histochemistry of Alcian blue
Histochemie (1972)
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The staining behavior of oocyte cytoplasm with the alcoholic Feulgen variant and with methyl green
Histochemie (1965)
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Differential Staining of Nucleic Acids?
Nature (1962)
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