title: Carmine-picroindigocarmine: an alternative multiple staining method.
abstract: Carmine-picroindigocarmine, a multiple staining method, was developed at the beginning of the previous century by Professor Harry Kull at the University of Tartu. The stain, combining copper carmine, picric acid and indigocarmine gives bright and colourful results. Nuclear structures are stained in red, cytoplasm in varying shades from yellow to green, collagen fibres in blue, the matrix of hyaline cartilage in greyish-blue, muscle tissues from brownish-red to brownish-green, erythrocytes in yellow. Squamous epithelia are stained in red with horney layers in dark red, nail plate and hairs are stained in bright yellow. The carmine-picroindigocarmine staining is stable, which allows for the combining of additional dyes without interfering with the main colouring. The combination of carmine-picroindigocarmine staining with resorcin-fuchsine in principle maintained the colouring of Kull's original method with additional staining of elastic fibres in violet colour that clearly differentiated them from blue stained collagen fibres. The described multiple staining gives an original colourful and aesthetic result, providing an alternative to other multiple staining methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of Tartu, Biomedicum, Estonia.
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arend
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kolts
mesh_terms: D001980:Bronchi / Q000166:cytology; D002329:Carmine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D003094:Collagen / Q000032:analysis; D004396:Coloring Agents; D005385:Fingers / Q000196:embryology; D006801:Humans; D013194:Staining and Labeling / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; C065876:picrocarmine; D003094:Collagen; D002329:Carmine