title: Appraisal of the effect of brain impregnation duration on neuronal staining and morphology in a modified Golgi-Cox method.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Golgi-Cox staining method is considered as one of the best neurohistological and fascinating staining techniques to reveal the cytoarchitecture of the brain. Requirement of longer time (more than a month), laborious section processing steps, requirement of sophisticated equipment's and costly ready to use kits limits extensive use of this technique.
  
  
  METHODS
  The need for a modified staining technique is to overcome some of these hurdles. Here we describe a modification of Golgi-Cox staining involving reduced impregnation time (7 days), omitting tissue dehydration steps, and alterations in section processing steps. Different impregnation duration (7 days, 14 days, 1 month, 6 months and 10 months) effects on optimized staining of dorsal hippocampus and basolateral amygdala were investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Modified Golgi-Cox staining method was found to be effective in staining rat hippocampus and amygdala. Impregnation for 7 days, 14 days and 1 month resulted in giving good results and they were comparable. However, artifacts were slightly elevated with 6 months group but not extensively. Impregnation for 10 months negatively affected the staining process.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared to existing methods the current method was found to be cost effective, fast, reliable and can be executed in labs where infrastructure is limited.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Current modification considerably benefitted in obtaining better results (good clarity and lesser artifact) in a short time. Longer impregnated brain sections were found to be unsuitable for morphometric evaluation due to more stain precipitation and artifact. The modified technique can be used to study cellular architecture in other brain regions.
authors: Department of Physiology, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India. Electronic address: sareeshnn@yahoo.co.in.
authors: Sareesh Naduvil
authors: SN
authors: Narayanan
authors: Department of Anatomy, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India.
authors: Raghu
authors: R
authors: Jetti
authors: Department of Anatomy, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India.
authors: Vasavi Rakesh
authors: VR
authors: Gorantla
authors: Department of Physiology, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India.
authors: Raju Suresh
authors: RS
authors: Kumar
authors: Department of Anatomy, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India.
authors: Satheesha
authors: S
authors: Nayak
authors: Division of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal 576 104, India.
authors: P Gopalakrishna
authors: PG
authors: Bhat
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D066272:Basolateral Nuclear Complex / Q000166:cytology*; D049229:Dendritic Spines; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology*; D010784:Photomicrography; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013194:Staining and Labeling / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Amygdala; Cytoarchitecture; Golgi–Cox staining; Hippocampus; Impregnation