Rui, in your first post about your problem, you wrote about decalcification of your samples. Are these samples, where you want to demonstrate bone, decalcified? Which decalcifier? Haematoxylin stains only non-decalcified bone, due to the Ca-ions. Strong acids for decalcification (like HNO3 or HCl) may alter the tissue-stainability. They are said to solve some amount of proteoglycans. If they are not decalcified, you can combine a von-Kossa-stain with a trichrome-stain or alcianblue. Calcified bone stains black.
An easy stain would be the combined Alcianblue-PAS. Alcianblue demonstrates acid proteoglycans, PAS demonstrates neutral glycoproteins like collagen. But I think, proteoglycans and collagen are in such a tight junction in cardilage, that it will give a mixed dye-appearance. But worth a try. Gudrun -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-boun...@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] Im Auftrag von Rui TAHARA Gesendet: Freitag, 23. August 2013 09:49 An: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu Betreff: [Histonet] Bone/cartilage/epithelial tissue stain Hi, Would anyone suggest me what staining is best to color differentiate between cartilage and bone and epithelial tissues in avian embryos? I have been trying Mallory Trichrome for embryos but recently I was suggested that Mallory Trichrome stains cartilage differently in embryos compared to adult samples since Aniline blue stains fiber that may not develop in early embryos. There is some protocol that modified the Mallory Trichrome that could be applied to embryos. However, the resulting colors of all tissues look all purple-ish and difficult to tell the cartilage from the weak blue stain from aniline blue. Currently I am thinking to try out Alcian blue/Hematoxylin and Eosin stain (Ehrlichs hematoxylin). The purpose of the staining is to look at interaction between ossification and epithelial development so I think alcian blue for staining cartilage works but I am wondering if there is any other staining combination with alcian blue exist for visualizing bone and epithelial tissue (e,g. alcian blue/alizarine red with other staining?). Any suggestion would be appreciated! Rui TAHARA PhD Candidate Biology Department McGill University _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet