Milli,
it is difficult to tell from your description what exactly you are
seeing.
it is important that you look carefully to see what is actually picking
up the hematoxylin dye. if these blue patches consist of many dark
staining nuclei, these patches could easily be areas of inflammation
containing lots of white cells that have rushed to the scene to fight
off the offending agent. the patches could also be a highly cellular
neoplasm to suggest two possibilities. without an image to look at one
can only speculate.




Vinnie Della Speranza
Manager for Anatomic Pathology Services
Medical University of South Carolina
165 Ashley Avenue  Suite 309
Charleston, SC 29425
Ph: 843-792-6353
fax: 843-792-8974

>>> Millicent Pope  04/30/03 10:24AM >>>
Hello, everyone-  
I am having some trouble with H&E staining on a piece of canine
stomach.  There are patches of light blue showing up where it should
be
pink.  I'm pretty sure it's not my staining protocol or technique
producing this artifact, as I have spent the last two weeks trying
everything I could to get this tissue uniformly pink.  As it stands
now,
I am using Gill's hematoxylin, the nuclei are nicely stained, and
there
is no hematoxylin background staining anywhere on the tissue escept
these light blue spots with dark blue nuclei.  Also, everything else
in
the rack being stained at the same time is coming out nicely.  Can
anyone think of anything that would make patches of smooth muscle
become
basophilic? 
Thanks!

Milli Pope
Texas A&M University
VAPH Histology