Miriam Schroeder wrote:

> 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".

It is nice to see people curious about the mechanism of staining!

> 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.

    I want to point out that you are paying a HUGE premium for the
conveninece of having someone else mix chemicals for you. A pint of 5%
sodium thiosulfate contains about 24 grams of the chemical, you can buy
500 grams for $32 (list price) from Fisher Scientific, enough to make
over 20 pints of a 5% solution. The pentahydrate form of sodium
thiosulfate is very stable and last forever on the shelf.

    Congratulations on your success with the stain!

Geoff
--
**********************************************
Geoff McAuliffe, Ph.D.
Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854
voice: (732)-235-4583; fax: -4029
mcauliff@umdnj.edu
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