Mycobacterium tuberculosis staining

Acid-fast bacilli Rod-shaped retains color of certain stains even when treated with acid Mycobacterium leprae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis... 

Fig. 24.7 Acid-fast bazilli of mycobacterium tuberculosis in the hver of an AIDS patient (Fite staining)...

Ulrichs T, Lefmann K, Reich M, et al. Modified immunohisto-logical staining allows detection of Ziehl-Neelsen-negative Mycobacterium tuberculosis organisms and their precise localization in human tissues. J Pathol. 2005 205 633-640. 

Robert Koch, a genius of scientific experimentation, was the first to use dyes to stain bacteria. In 1882, he discovered the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, tubercle bacillus (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), using a stain that he invented with a dye. That was a major event in human medical history. 

R. Khutlang, S. Krishnan, R. Dendere, A. Whitelaw, K. Veropoulos, G. Learmonth, and T.S. Douglas, Classification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in images of ZN-stained sputum smears , IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, 2009. 

Irtuganova, O. A. Yushchenko, A. A. Smirnova, N. S. Slogotskaya, L. V. Arkhipov, V. V. Determining drug susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using a biphasic culture medium and staining by triphenyltetrazolium chloride. Russ. RU 2255977, 2005 Chem. Abstr. 2005, 143, 93610. 

Mycobacterium is a genus of bacteria that has characteristic cell walls and unusual staining properties. AIDS patients are most commonly infected with an atypical form of tuberculosis bacterium called Mycobacterium avium inter-cellulare. This bacterium does not normally cause disease in healthy people, but in AIDS patients, it may cause tuberculosis-like disease in the lungs. The infection can also involve numerous other tissues, such as the bone marrow, and bacteria may be present in the blood at very high levels. Patients with this opportunistic infection will have fevers and low number of white blood cells. These infections are often resistant to drugs. 

---