[Histonet] Wright-Giemsa for sections?

[Bob Richmond]

Tyrone Genade in Orange City, Iowa asks:

>>Can the Wright-Giemsa stain be used on fixed, paraffin embedded sections?
Does anyone have a protocol? I want to examine hematopoietic tissue of
fish, i.e. the head kidney. No smears or imprint possible. I would like to
use Wrights so I can use the same stain for blood smears.<<

Bryan Llewellyn refers you to
http://stainsfile.info/StainsFile/stain/oversight/romanowsky.htm

That method prescribes neutral buffered formalin fixation. Us old-timers
preferred Zenker fixation, which you can't do today on account of the
mercury in it. You may have to try different fixatives.

The differentiation under microscopic control is really necessary - when I
was a resident at Cornell Medical Center in NYC fifty years ago, the
histotechs would push the residents off the double-headed microscopes when
they sat down to differentiate the bone marrow biopsy section Giemsa stains.

The old-timers used a 10% solution of colophonium rosin (almost pure
abietic acid) in alcohol, instead of acetic acid, to differentiate the
stain.

You buy Giemsa or Wright or Romanovsky stain already dissolved in absolute
alcohol. You have to be a fanatic about not contaminating your stock bottle
with the tiniest trace of water.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Maryville TN