Scott Sauerbrunn at Sigma-Aldrich posts a note about a problem that's been 
talked about for some time - the increasing unavailability of Alcian blue. 
Because of the importance of this dye to surgical pathologists, I'm 
cross-posting this note to the pathology list server, because it's a problem 
pathologists need to be aware of.

Surgical pathologists use 1% Alcian blue in 3% acetic acid (approximately ph 
2.5) to detect intestinal goblet cells in gastric mucosa, most notably in the 
metaplastic gastric mucosa seen in the esophagus in Barrett's esophagus, a 
pre-cancerous condition of increasing importance to pathologists. I think 
it's usually prepared in 100 mL quantities with 1 gram of dye. The dry dye 
supposedly does not always have a very good shelf life.

Robert S. Richmond MD
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN
*******************
Scott Sauerbrunn writes:
>>I am the Histology product manager for Sigma - Aldrich and I need some
direction from all of you in the Histology field. The world wide supply of
the stain Alcian Blue 8GX has been exhausted. Sigma has been out of stock
for the last 8 months and we have been unable to find a supplier with
current stock. We eventually found a foreign firm that was willing to
develop a manufacturing process and supply a sample lot. The good news is
the sample was approved by the Biological Stain Commission. The bad news
is the foreign firm is requiring Sigma to purchase 100 kg of the stain at a
very high purchase price. As a result, we would be forced to increase our
price from $49.00 per 25gm to $266.50 per 25gm. This price is the minimum 
profit margin that our financial people will allow.

I have the following questions that only you in the field can answer. Is this 
stain critical to health care and will you be willing to pay the large price
increase? Would this higher price force you to develop alternatives to
using this stain? I really do need your input. Our financial people have
put a hold on this project because they feel the demand will dry up at this
high purchase price. We contacted a random sample of our customers on
backorder and 50% canceled their orders when informed of the price
increase. I feel these were probably purchasing agents and don't represent
the true wishes of the end users. Please respond to me via E-mail at
ssauerbrunn@sial.com. I will monitor the histonet to read any debate that
might arise from this issue.<<