Beth:

I made several posts to the Histonet recently with
questions about Fontana-Masson staining and never did
get ANY replies which I found quite unusual. 
Fortunately, I was able to get the stain to work
without any advice.  (I was worried maybe I was doing
something wrong - but once I got ahold of some control
slides I was able to confirm that my experimental
tissue simply was not positive for this stain, it was
NOT a question of my technique.)  My posts were
regarding the mechanism of the stain - I didn't
understand the chemical mechanism behind the stain so
didn't know what steps of the procedure I might want
to try "tweaking".  Therefore, my knowledge of this
stain is still limited, but here's what worked for me:

I purchased reagents from American Master*Tech
Scientific, Lodi, CA, 800-860-4073,
www.mastertechs.com.  I find their catalog a bit
tricky to navigate at times, so I'll include page
numbers from the current catalog to help you along:

They sell a kit, catalog #KTFMA, page 83, $85.  It's
actually a pretty small kit, you can also order the
individual components by bulk & request the protocol
from the kit, that's what I did.  The bulk reagents
are also found of pg. 83:  Gold Chloride Solution, 1
pint, #KC0712, $95; Nuclear Fast Red, #KC0722, 1 pint,
$70; Silver Nitrate, #KC073B, 10 vials of powder, $65;
5% Sodium Thiosulfate, 1 pint, #KC0742, $39.

They also sell control slides for use with this kit,
control slides are found on page 34:
Melanin control slides:  #CSMEL5, $26 for a pack of of
5 slides or #CSMEL25, $100 for a pack of 25 slides.
Argentaffin control slides: #SCAAR5, $26 for a 5-pack
or #CSAAR25, $100 for a 25-pack.

I ordered the Melanin slides.

I still have very little experience with the
Fontana-Masson stain, but I can tell you the kit
definitely works & the control slides are good.  ALSO
- I've been having bad luck getting decent Nuclear
Fast Red but this stuff stained very well.

I hope this helps.

Miriam Schroeder

--- Histo-Scientific Research Laboratories
<histosci@shentel.net> wrote:
> Dear Histonetters,
> 
> Does anyone have any recommendations for purchasing
> a Fontana-Masson stain
> kit?  Has anyone had good results with using a kit
> opposed to making it up
> yourself?  Any help is appreciated.
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Beth Poole
> HSRL
> (540)459-8211
> beth@hsrl.org
> www.hsrl.org
> 
> 


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