[Histonet] Osmium tetroxide staining for lipids

[Rittman, Barry R]

Sheila Hi
I am assuming that you are using frozen sections?
The easiest way is to put a small amount of aqueous osmium tetroxide in the bottom of a dish that has a tight fitting lid.
Place the slide with section into the dish but not touching the fluid.
Place tightly fitting lid and leave - not sure how long, probably 20- 30 minutes should do it although can leave longer.
Then simply rinse and that's it.
The osmium vapor fixes the lipid so that it is not important to have any buffer in the solution, can just use straightforward osmium tetroxide in distilled water.
The osmium black that forms is insoluble in most solvents.
You should do this in a fume hood as the vapor will fix your nasal mucosa if you are not careful.
Hope that your pathologist realizes that although the osmium will stain the lipid it  makes staining of other components very difficult.
Barry

From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Sheila Adey [sadey <@t> hotmail.ca]
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 7:30 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Osmium tetroxide staining for lipids

Hi Everyone:

One of my pathologists wants me to look into Osmium Tetroxide for staining lipids. From what I can gather on the internet, it looks like it is used in Electron microscopy for fixation and staining.
Is anyone using this procedure for routine 4 micrometer sections?

Thanks
:)
Sheila                                    _______________________________________________
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