[Histonet] Suggestions for staining ground substances in the Heart

[Mayer,Toysha N]

Kristie,
 For heart you could try the elastic Trichrome, it will stain the ground substances and is faster than the Movat.  If your ground substance is devoid of staining it could be the phosphotungstic acid.  Is it 5%, and fresh?  Are you using two changes at 5 min each?   Continue with the 4micron sections, and use fresh solutions.  If you can make the phosphotungstic yourself, do that.  Commercial solutions sometimes do not store well.
Hope this helps.


Sincerely,

Toysha N. Mayer, D.H.Sc., MBA, HT (ASCP)
Instructor/Education Coordinator
Program in Histotechnology
School of Health Professions
UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
713.563-3481





-----Original Message-----
From: Wolfe, Christina [mailto:christina.wolfe at bms.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, 1 July 2015 1:15 AM
To: histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Suggestions for staining ground substances in the Heart

Hi all,
We are interested in staining ground substances in the heart.  Are there other stains that will work beside the Pentachrome?  We have tried the Movat's pentachrome (commercial kit) and are able to demonstrate ground substance in the bone with the alcian blue part of this stain.  In our hands the goblet cells of the gut and the ground substance in the heart are devoid of staining.  We have tried sections cut at 4 and 6 microns.  Any thoughts/suggestions?

Kristie

Christina Wolfe, BSHA, MLT (ASCP), HT, QIHC Drug Safety Evaluation/Bristol-Myers Squibb Pathology Dept.
812-307-2093