[Histonet] Alcianblue stain - picture

[Gudrun Lang]

Hi dear listmembers,

We struggle with the "right" image of a good alcianblue stain of skin with
lupus.  We use a commercial 1% alcianblue, pH 2,5 (10 min incubation, wash
in aqua dest., 5 min nuclear fast red, wash, dehydrate, clear, coverslip).

We switched just two months ago from the automated Nexes stainer to the
(good old) manual method. Now my pathologists complain about "too much blue"
in the corium. I say, there must be a staining of the hyaluronic acid and
other acid mucosubstances surrounding the collagen fibers. They say, they
only want to see the mucin stained, that is typical for the lupus, in
intense blue and the surrounding should be colourless.

So, can somebody provide me with a picture of a good alcianblue stain of
skin with lupus? - please. Or give me any helpful hint.

 

Thanks in advance

Gudrun Lang