[Histonet] methasol fast blue

[John Kiernan]

Dear Manuelle,

You didn't give details of your reference. Is it 
Maxwell, A (1963) The alcian dyes applied to gastric
mucosa. Stain Technol 38: 286-287?  

This paper showed that gastric mucus (a neutral 
carbohydrate macromolecule, normally alcian-negative) 
could be oxidized with periodic acid and then treated 
with bisulphite to generate aldehyde bisulphite 
compounds. These are strong acids. As such, they can 
be stained with alcian dyes even at low pH. This 
principle is exploited to stain gastric mucus yellow 
(with alcian yellow) as a contrasting background to 
Helicobacter organisms subsequently stained at a lower 
pH with a blue cationic dye. Look up:
http://stainsfile.info/StainsFile/stain/micro/heliaytb.htm
and check out its main reference (Leung & Gibbons 1996
J. Histotechnol. 19: 131ff) 

I cannot find "methasol fast blue" as the name of a dye.

Lillie (in the 9th edition of Conn's Biological Stains, 
9th edn, 1977) had an entry for "methazol fast blue 2GI" 
(CI 74360, Solvent blue 24). He briefly argued that the 
name probably applied to a solvent dye equivalent to
luxol fast blue MBS. A dye with a "luxol" name will
never be used to stain mucus. The "luxol" dyes are
used to stain myelin.

Don't look for "links on the web where I can buy this 
dye". Check out the original published account and 
review it in the light of more recent work. You are
at a major European university. Use its libraty to 
find the information. A name like "methasol" or
"methazol" almost certainly indicates a solvent dye
(used to stain lipids).

John Kiernan
London, Canada
__________________________
Manuelle De Bock wrote:
> 
> I am trying to stain collected gastric tissue cells with Maxwell's staining procedure (1963)
> but we don't have methasol fast blue in our lab. I also can't find any links on the web where I can buy this dye. can someone help me with this? Is it the same dye as Luxol fast blue?
> 
> Kind regards
> Manuelle
> 
> Manuelle De Bock, dierenarts (DVM)
> Laboratory of Veterinary Pathology
> Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Avian Diseases
> Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
> Ghent University
> Salisburylaan 133
> B9820 Merelbeke - Belgium
> Tel 0032(0)9 264 7745
> Fax 0032(0)9 264 7789