Tyrone Genade in Orange City, Iowa asks: >>Can the Wright-Giemsa stain be used on fixed, paraffin embedded sections? Does anyone have a protocol? I want to examine hematopoietic tissue of fish, i.e. the head kidney. No smears or imprint possible. I would like to use Wrights so I can use the same stain for blood smears.<<
Bryan Llewellyn refers you to http://stainsfile.info/StainsFile/stain/oversight/romanowsky.htm That method prescribes neutral buffered formalin fixation. Us old-timers preferred Zenker fixation, which you can't do today on account of the mercury in it. You may have to try different fixatives. The differentiation under microscopic control is really necessary - when I was a resident at Cornell Medical Center in NYC fifty years ago, the histotechs would push the residents off the double-headed microscopes when they sat down to differentiate the bone marrow biopsy section Giemsa stains. The old-timers used a 10% solution of colophonium rosin (almost pure abietic acid) in alcohol, instead of acetic acid, to differentiate the stain. You buy Giemsa or Wright or Romanovsky stain already dissolved in absolute alcohol. You have to be a fanatic about not contaminating your stock bottle with the tiniest trace of water. Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Maryville TN _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet