Alcian-blue

Quantitation of heparin by photodensitometry may be performed after staining the electrophoretic strips with such dyes as Alcian Blue or Toluidine Blue. Alternatively, the heparin- dye complex may be eluted, for spectrophotometry in solution.68... 

Fig. 2 Representative histological images of (a) bovine annulus fibrosus (H E staining), (b) bovine nucleus pulposus (H E staining), and (c) porcine notochordal cells (Alcian blue staining for GAGs with fast red nuclei stain)...

Pickup samples on 400-mesh copper grids with carbon film pretreated with alcian blue. 

For rodents, one-half of the fetuses are submitted to a fixed soft tissue examination and half are submitted to skeletal examination (see Note 5). The ossified skeleton of the remaining rodent fetuses is stained with alizarin red (see Chapter 16). Additional staining of the cartilage with alcian blue (see Chapter 17) is optional. Allocation of the fetuses within each litter to soft tissue or skeletal examination is performed alternately or randomly. 

Certain guidelines (5-7) require or give as an option a double staining method for the fetal skeleton with Alcian Blue added to stain cartilage together with Alizarin for the ossified material. 

Key words Prenatal developmental toxicity, Skeletal examination, Double staining, Alcian blue. 

Alcian Blue stain (2 g Alcian blue dissolved in 16 L ethanol 96% and 4 L glacial acetic acid). 

The specimens are placed by litter in stainless steel trays, transferred into the processor, and stained in alcian blue stain for 48 h. The alcian blue stain is then replaced with ethanol. After decoloration and dehydration for 72 h the ethanol is decanted and replaced with 1% KOH solution for 48 h. The actual staining step follows... 

Inouye M (1976) Differential staining of cartilage and bone in fetal mouse skeleton by alcian blue and alizarin red S. Cong Anom 16 171-173... 

Staining solution 1% Alcian blue in 70% ethanol/acetic acid (95 5 v/v). 

De Jong JGN, Heijs WM, Wevers RA (1994) Mucopolysaccharidoses screening dimethylene blue versus Alcian blue. Ann Clin Biochem 31 267-271... 

Our methods for gums rely on the diachrome, Alcian Blue, for carrageenan and agar, and fluorescently tagged lectins for xanthan, guar and locust bean gum (LBG). Of the most important gums, only CMC and pectin currently lack specific methods. 

Carrageenan and agar can be localized in products using Alcian Blue, a positively charged diachrome, at pH 1.0. At this pH, only sulfate groups in products remain negatively charged and so will react, provided that the pH of the substrate has been dropped to match that of the... 

Figure 7. The left hand side shows an image of comminuted Process Cheese Spread stained for sulfate groups by application of Alcian blue at pH 1.0. Carrageenan is localized as the darker staining material in the micrograph. The right hand side of the same Figure shows a similar cheese particle not stained with Alcian Blue. Kohler illumination, (x 750)...

Microwave heat-assisted rapid fixation and double staining of the mouse fetal skeleton has also been carried out (Ilgaz et al., 1998). The staining was accomplished with a mixture of alcian blue and alizarin red S in 23 min in the microwave oven instead of 4 days at room temperature. The cartilage and bone are stained distinctly. 

Matthews, K., and Kelly, J. K. 1989. A microwave oven method for the combined alcian blue-periodic acid-schiff stain. J. Histotechnol. 72 295-297. 

Glycoproteins Alcian Blue Stains the sugar moiety... 

Recently Heremans demonstrated mucopolysaccharides in urine after zone electrophoresis by means of an Alcian blue-acid fuchsin staining technique (HI).3 Applied in our laboratory to a curtain after a run of serum, two fractions, references -)- 86.30 and - - 86.12, were demonstrated but do not seem to be regular components of serum, at least not in that high concentration (Fig. 62c). 

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