Novel electron microscopic staining method using traditional dye, hematoxylin

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 7756 - 7
• Main Authors: Sasaki, Hiroyuki, Arai, Hisako, Kikuchi, Emi, Saito, Hideki, Seki, Keiko, Matsui, Takeshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16.05.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/1647/1407/1555; 631/1647/328/2082; Acetic acid; Citric Acid; Coloring Agents; Dyes; Electron microscopy; Electrons; Epoxy resins; Hematoxylin; Humanities and Social Sciences; International regulations; Ion beams; multidisciplinary; Scanning electron microscopy; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Staining and Labeling; Stains & staining; Tomography; Uranyl acetate
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-11523-y

Uranyl acetate (UA) has been routinely used as a staining solution for ultrathin sections used in biological electron microscopy. As a radioactive nuclear material, UA is subject to strict international regulations. To develop an alternative and easy-to-use staining method for ultrathin sections, we examined various commercial light microscopic dyes. We found that Mayer’s hematoxylin followed by Reynold’s lead citrate solution showed staining results comparable to UA and Reynold’s lead citrate solution, and this method is therefore suggested as a reliable and promising alternative to UA staining.