[Histonet] Sirius red stain - picric acid substitute - water - really?

[Mia Woodruff]

Hello all,

I have been undertaking sirius red staining using picric acid, I was under the impression (from papers) that picric acid is an important component of the procedure and read that it prevents non-specific binding of the dye to things other than collagen. However,  I have recently found a paper which suggests I can simply use water instead of picric acid, seems quite a long shot but I wondered if anyone has experience with the water technique- given that picric acid is pretty dangerous I would be keen to move away from using it but only if scientifically sound to do so. I don't want to jeopardize my results but if this method works then it's a far safer and cheaper safer approach. Any advice?

Paper: A specific quantitative assay for collagen synthesis by cells seeded in collagen-based biomaterials using sirius red F3B precipitation
LEE D.A.; ASSOKU E.; DOYLE V. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine<http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/jmsm>, Volume 9, Number 1, 1998 , pp. 47-51(5)


Many thanks
Mia