[Histonet] help with myelin staining in poorly osmicated tissue

[Lange, Mollie]

Is there an alternative to toluidine blue stain for plastic embedded tissue?
I have some valuable epoxy resin embedded rat spinal cord blocks that were not well osmicated.  Toluidine Blue staining of the semi-thin sections is uneven and pale in the center of the sections.  Is there another stain I could try that is not dependent on good osmium penetration?  I fear that alcohol dehydration and propylene oxide clearing may have demyelinated the poorly osmicated portions of the block.  In that case, no stain will work.  But I'm not ready to give up yet.

Thanks for any and all advice.  I've been out of the lab for a while.

Mollie Lange
Project Manager
International Center for Spinal Cord Injury
Huo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger
707 N. Broadway
Baltimore, MD 21205
443-923-9241 phone
443-923-9245 fax
lange <@t> kennedykrieger.org<mailto:lange <@t> kennedykrieger.org>

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