title: Cresyl Violet Stains Mast Cells Selectively: Its Application to Counterstaining in Immunohistochemistry.
abstract: The thiazine dye toluidine blue (TB) is well known to stain mast cells and hyaline cartilage metachromatically, and thus is mostly often used for their identification. However, TB is not suitable for counterstaining in immunohistochemistry, because of its high-background staining in the cytoplasm of other cell species and in extracellular structures. To expand the knowledge about dyestuffs staining mast cells in consideration with their usage in immunohistochemistry, we determined the stainability of several thiazines and oxazines, which are structurally related compounds to TB, using sections of mast cell-containing tissues. We found that all azine dyes used metachromatically stained mast cells and cartilage. Among these dyes, an oxazines cresyl violet (CV) stained mast cells with lower background, suggesting that those are useful for detecting mast cells and for counterstaining in immunohistochemistry. To ascertain its utility, CV was used in immunostaining of bHSDs in sections from adult rat ovary. Immunopositive signals reflected by DAB development in brown were clearly detected even after CV staining. We conclude that, similar to thiazines, oxazines stain mast cells metachromatically, and that of these, CV is more useful as a counterstain in immunohistochemistry than TB.
authors.affiliation: 1 Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Sugao, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki 216-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Neurobiology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Science, Sakamoto 1-12-4, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan.
authors.forename: Wataru
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tarumi
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Sugao, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki 216-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.affiliation: 1 Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Sugao, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki 216-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Bunpei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ishizuka
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Biology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Konodai 2-8-30, Ichikawa, Chiba 272-0827, Japan.
authors.forename: Masanori T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Itoh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D048588:Benzoxazines / Q000737:chemistry*; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D008168:Lung / Q000166:cytology; D008407:Mast Cells; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010053:Ovary / Q000166:cytology; D051381:Rats; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000166:cytology; D016707:Tissue Fixation
chemical_list: D048588:Benzoxazines; D004396:Coloring Agents; C028911:cresyl violet
keywords: azine dyes and immunohistochemistry; cresyl violet; mast cell; metachromasia