Rosalba Zumbo wrote:
> Does anyone know of a reliable method for staining Barr bodies on smears.

In Barr's lab they used cresyl violet. There's a
nice account of the method in H.C.Cook's "Manual
of Histological Demonstration /techniques"
London: Butterworths (1974) pp 189-193, citing
K.L.Moore 1962 Acta Cytol. 6:1 as the source.
(Keith Moore was one of Murray Barr's graduate
students here at UWO; later became prof of anatomy
in Toronto, and author of successful embryology and
anatomy textbooks.)

Smears were wet-fixed in ether-alcohol, at least
30m, coated with a layer of nitrocellulose,
stained in 1% cresyl violet 15m, washed in water
and then differentiated in 95% alochol until
nuclear chromatin stood out sharply. Finally
rinse in 100% alcohol, remove the celloidin
film, clear and mount.

Cook's brief account has other advice, and 
drawings of normal male & female and several
abnormal types of nucleus. He also describes
two other staining techniques, one using orcein
and one that is similar to a trichrome method.
-- 
-------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,   Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan@uwo.ca
   http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/