[Histonet] re:Hematoxylin Staining of Skin

[Matthew T Close]

      My  first question is in what region of skin is the staining poor?   The  fibroblasts  of the dermis should stain really well with H&E    should  the  cells of the stratum germinativum.  From there out nucle   ar  staining  gets worse and worse.  I attribute it to two things, and
   i   problem:      dividing  and  are  g   their  way  out to the stratum    be  sparse  as  a  result  of  the  process     keratinized  epithelia  tend to be problematic for   staining   techniques   where  tissue  has  to  be  dehydrated  a   rehydrated.  I have always had trouble sectioning highly keratinize   skin  because of improper infiltration.  Second is the organization o   f  chromatin  in  epidermal  cells in general, which is seemingly very
   differen   germinativum often does s
      With  all  that being said, I hav   problems  associated  with  H&E  staining    Sometimes  it  might  be  as simple as adding    acetic  acid  to  your  hematoxylin to lower the pH.&nbs   doesn't  work,  I typically will use iron alum or ferric chlorid   believe  2-4%  iron  alum has worked relatively well for me when used)
   as   hematoxylin.    because   anything  holding  t   hematoxylin   and   will   need   to   be   differentia   counterstaining.   I  have  also  had mild success with iron ga   elastin stain, but this is really more of a stain for elastin that ju   st    happens    to   stain   nuclei   blue-black   and   gives   good
   differentiation. 
      As  I  said   behind  this  or  maybe  ev   epidermal cells, the histo community
   -Matt