[Histonet] Histology Special Stains for Macrophages

[John Kiernan]

None of the methods mentioned in the enquiry are stains for macrophages. Research workers who never took Histology 101 often stain cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage immunohistochemically (IHC), using very expensive primary antibodies and fairly expensive kits to amplify and detect the binding sites. IHC is necessary if you must find every macrophage, including a tissue's recent monocyte immigrants that haven't yet done any work. Macrophages that have been busily eating blood are full of brown granules that don't need any staining. 
 
Ordinary people recognize macrophages by their appearance in sections stained with a well done H&E or with one of the many Romanowsky-Giemsa blood stains. With the latter it's important to get the pH right - much lower for sections of formaldehyde-fixed objects (pH4 to 5) than for methanol-fixed films or smears (traditionally 6.8). It's all very well explained in RD Lillie & GM Fullmer's "Histopathologic Technic..." (4th ed 1976, pp.193-197; the 3rd edition, 1965, is OK too) and also in more recent textbooks including those by Bancroft & Gamble, Geoffrey Brown, Freida Carson and, of course 
Yours truly.
 
John Kiernan
Anatomy, UWO
London, Canada
http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/bookfind.htm
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Willman, Sharon" <sharon.willman <@t> bms.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 12:12
Subject: [Histonet] Histology Special Stains for Macrophages
To: "histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu" <histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu>

> Hi,
> We are needing to do a special stain for macrophages.  What 
> is the most common stain for that?  Does anyone do a Sudan 
> Black, Alcian Blue or Van Gieson for macrophages?  Any 
> information would be appreciated.
> Thanks in advance.
> Sharon
> 
> 
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