Tracey
You can really use any good collagen stain,  the important thing here is the
quantitation used.  The sections need to be of the same thickness in order to be
able to compare them.
An inbuilt control needs to be used at the same time so that you can relate
intensity of staining with thickness of section.
The staining needs to be carried out at one time so that chemicals used and
staining times are identical for all sections.
Barry

Tracey Couse wrote:

> I am interested in a collagen stain that will allow one of our graduate
> students to quantify the amount of total collagen present in coronary
> artery sections. I have been reviewing the archives and literature for this
> information.  Based on my research thus far, picro-sirius red seems the
> best stain for this purpose. I am not interested in the birefringence
> properties of collagen and this stain as it is mainly collagen fiber (type
> I only?) birefringence that is enhanced.  Is picro-sirius the best stain to
> use in determining the total collagen present in a given section using
> ordinary bright field microscopy?
>
> Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>
> Tracey Couse
> Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience
> Georgia Institute of Technology
> Atlanta, GA