Histology Stains:

Aldehyde Fuchsin
This histology stain can be used to stain pancreatic islet beta cell granules. This
stains elastic fibers purple/black.


Alician Blue
This histology stain will stain mucins and mucosubstances blue. Copper in the
histology stain is what ultimately is responsible for the blue color. Nuclei will stain
pink/red. Cytoplasm stains a lighter pink. Mucins stain blue.


Alizarin Red S
This histology stain is an anthraquinone derivative. This histology stain can be
may be used to identify calcium in tissue sections.


Alkaline Phosphatase
This histology stain will stain endothelial cells. Sites of alkaline phophatase activity
will appear red. Nuclei will stain blue.


Bielschowsky Stain
Silver is used in this histology staining process. This histology stain shows reticular
fibers. This histology stain is also used for showing neurofibrillary tangles and
senile plaques. Neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques will stain black.


Cajal Stain
This histology stain is used on nervous tissue.


Congo Red
Congo red histology stain is used to stain amyloid. Amyloid will stain orange/red.

Cresyl Violet
This histology stain is a Nissl stain. Cresyl violet will stain both neurons and glia. It
bonds well with acidic parts of cells such as ribosomes, nuclei and nucleoli. It
stains cell bodies a blue/violet.


Fontana-Masson
This histology stain uses silver. Fontana-Masson stains argentaffin granules and
melanin black. The nucleus will stain pink/red. The cytoplasm will stain light pink.


Gabe Trichrome
A trichrome histology stain is a mixture of three dyes. This histology stain can be
helpful for differentiating cellular from extracellular items.


Giemsa Stain
This is a histology stain for peripheral blood smears and bone marrow. It is also
used to visualize parasites and malaria. This is a Romanowsky type stain.
Methylene blue and eosin are used. Erythrocytes stain pink/red. Platelets and
leukocytes stain blue. This micrograph depicts the appearance of a well-stained
slide using the Giemsa staining technique. Note that the acidic components of the
cellular constituents such as the cytoplasm and chromatin, pick up the basic
methylene blue azure compliments of the Giemsa stain, which reveals the
characteristic blue coloration of this stain.

Golgi Stain
This histology stain will stain neurons.


Gomori Trichrome
A trichrome histology stain is a mixture of three dyes. Gomori's trichrome will
stain connective tissue and collagen green or blue. It stains muscle, keratin and
cytoplasm red. Nuclei will stain gray/blue/black.


Hematoxylin & Eosin
This is a standard histology stain. "H&E" stand for hematoxylin and eosin.
Hematoxylin and eosin stain is used for routine tissue preparation frequently. This
is the most often used combination in the histology lab for general purpose
staining. With an H&E stain, mucus and cartilage will stain a light blue color.
Hematoxylin can be thought of as a basic dye. It binds to acidic structures,
staining them blue to purple. It will bind and stain nucleic acids. Therefore, the
nucleus stains blue.
Eosin is an acid aniline dye. It will bind to and stain basic structures (or negatively
charged structures), such as cationic amino groups on proteins. It stains them
pink. Cytoplasm, muscle, connective tissue, colloid, red blood cells and decalcified
bone matrix all stain pink to pink/orange/red with eosin.




Iron Hematoxylin
This histology stain will stain nuclei bluish/black.

Luna Stain
This histology stain can be used to demonstrate elastin and mast cells. Elastin
fibers and mast cells will stain purple. Nuclei will stain black.


Luxol Fast Blue
This histology stain is the alcohol soluble equivalent of alician blue. Luxol fast blue
is used to demonstrate myelin. It stains myelin blue to blue/green. Neurons stain
violet. Red blood cells stain blue.


Mallory Trichome
A trichrome histology stain is a mixture of three dyes. This histology stain is used
on connective tissue to visualize collagen and reticular fibers.


Masson Trichome
A trichrome histology stain is a mixture of three dyes. This histology stain can be
helpful for differentiating cellular from extracellular items. This histology stain
uses light green, iron hematoxylin, and acid fuchsin. It is useful on connective
tissue.
Collagen fibers stain green or blue with Masson's trichrome stain. Muscle and
keratin will be red. Cytoplasm will be pink to red. Nuclei will be black.

Movat's Pentachrome Stain
This histology stain is used to visualize connective tissue.


Mucicarmine
Mucicarmine is a histology stain used to see epithelial mucin. It stains it a deep
red.


Nissl Stains
These histology stains are basic dyes. They stain RNA and DNA. It is used to see
Nissl body in neurons. Nissl bodies stain purple/blue.


Nuclear Fast Red
This histology stains nuclei red. The cytoplasm will be unstained or yellow. This
histology slide of the liver tissue stained postive for calcium deposits (stained
black) with Von Kossa and the background is stained with nuclear fast red.


Oil Red O
This is a histology stain used for lipids. Lipids will stain red. Nuclei will stain
blue/black.


Orcein Stain
A histology stain used for elastin fibers.

Osmium Tetroxide
This histology stain can be used to stain lipids. Collagen and erythrocytes will stain
brown. Myelin and lipids will stain black.


Papanicolaou Stain
This histology stain is used mainly on exfoliated cytological specimens. Cells in
smear preparations can be stained with Pap staining. Gynecological smears (Pap
smears), sputum, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, abdominal fluid, pleural fluid,
synovial fluid, semminal fluid and fine needle aspiration samples can all be
stained with a Pap stain. This staining technique involving five dyes in three
solutions.

Periodic Acid-Schiff (PAS)
This histology stain is particularly useful for staining glycogen and other
carbohydrates, but is useful for many things. It is often used to show glomeruli,
basement membranes, and glycogen in the liver. PAS stains glycogen, mucin,
mucoprotein, and glycoproteins magenta. The nuclei will stain blue. Collagen will
stain pink.


Phosphotungstic Acid-Hematoxylin (PTAH)
This histology stain is used to stain striated muscle fibers and mitochondria. They
will stain blue. Nucleus, red blood cells and muscle all will stain blue. Collagen will
stain red. In this histology slide of the tongue, PTAH stains the collagen pink, fibrin
blue, and striated muscle blue as well.


PicroSirius Red (polarized)
When used with polarized light, this is a way to visualize collagen. With polarized
microscopy, collagen fibers will be bright yellow or orange and the thinner fibers
will be green.


Prussian Blue
Prussian blue histology stain is used to stain iron (ferric iron and ferritin).


Reticular Fiber Stain
This histology stain uses silver salt. Reticular fibers become black. Sometimes a
counterstain is used.


Romanowsky Stains
These histology stains are used for blood and bone marrow. Examples of
Romanowsky histology stains include Wright's stain, Giemsa stain and Jenner's
stain. These histology stains are based on a combination of eosin and methylene
blue.


Safranin O
This histology stain will stain mucin, cartilage and mast cells. It stains them
orange/red. Safranin O is sometimes used as a counterstain.


Silver Stain
These histology stains use silver. Argyrphilic tissue has an affinity for silver salts.
The silver salts will be seen in argyrphilic tissues. Silver histology stains are used
to show melanin and retiuclar fibers. Reticular fibers will stain black.

Sudan Stain
Sudan histology stains are used for staining of lipids and phospholipids. Examples
of such histology stains are sudan black, sudan IV, and oil red O.

Tartrazine
This histology stain will stain cytoplasm, cartilage, and red blood cells yellow.

Toludine Blue
This knee joint is stained to show the growth plate in purple.


Van Gieson
This histology stain is sometimes used in conjunction with iron hematoxylin. This
histology stain can be used to differentiate collagen and smooth muscle.
Cytoplasm and muscle stains brown/yellow. Collagen stains red. Red blood cells
stain yellow. Cartilage stains pink.

Verhoeff Stain
A histology stain used for connective tissue and particularly to see elastic fibers.
Sometimes a counter stain is used. This histology stain is can be useful when
looking at lung tissue and arteries. Elastin will stain a dark brown/black. The
nucleus of cells stains black.


Von Kossa Stain
This histology stain is a silver reduction method used to visualize calcium and
calcium deposits. Here the chondrocytes in the growth plate are staining black.


Wright's Stain
This histology stain is used for blood smears and bone marrow smears.
This histology stain uses a blend of basic dyes, such as methylene blue derivatives
and acid dyes, such as eosin.
Red blood cells stain reddish/pink. Eosinophilic granules will be a bright
orange/red. The nucleus of white blood cells will stain purple. Basophilic granules
will stain blue/black. Neutrophilic granules stain pale brown. Platelets stain
purple. The cytoplasm of lymphocytes stains pale blue.
This histology slide has been stained using an "automatic staining" device. It is a
Wright's stain. The acidic components, such as the nucleic acids, will take on the
basic portion of the stain, or the methylene azure color, and stain blue. The basic
components, such as erythrocyte hemoglobin, will stain pink with eosin, since
eoisn is an acidic dye.