[Histonet] Re: RED COUNTERSTAINS

[Geoff McAuliffe]

Hi Bob:

    I bought some Brazilliant recently and mixed it according to the 
directions provided. The results were dissipointing, red-orange nuclei, 
not very intense. The tissue was rabbit kidney fixed in 
formalin-alcohol-acetic. An alum hematoxylin on the same tissue looks fine.

Geoff

Robert Richmond wrote:
> Diana McCaig asks about the nuclear counterstains nuclear fast red and
> neutral red.
>
> Does anyone on this list have any experience with Anatech's
> "Brazilliant", their trade name for alum brazilin, closely related to
> alum hematoxylin, but red instead of purple? This looks to me like a
> very logical red nuclear stain, and I'd certainly like to see it in
> action if it were possible for me to obtain it (remember that hospital
> pathology services are not usually permitted to order from small
> companies like Anatech and the Davidson marking ink people).
>
> As everybody on this list ought to know, hematoxylin is a dye
> extracted from the logwood tree (Haematoxylum campechianum), with an
> aluminum mordant. (There is no satisfactory synthetic substitute.)
> Brazilin is structurally very similar, but with an alum mordant it is
> red rather than purple. Brazilin is extracted from the closely related
> brazil woods, Caesalpinia echinata or C. sappan.
>
> One would expect this red dye to have the same staining specificity as
> hematoxylin, and it should not wash out in aqueous mounting media.
>
> (I have no connection with Anatech.)
>
> Bob Richmond
> Samurai Pathologist
> Knoxville TN
>
> _______________________________________________
> Histonet mailing list
> Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
>
>
>   


-- 
--
**********************************************
Geoff McAuliffe, Ph.D.
Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854
voice: (732)-235-4583 
mcauliff <@t> umdnj.edu
**********************************************