Victoria Baker wrote:

> Hi!
>
> I have another oldie, but goodie.  Lillie devised a
> stain back in 1965 for ferric ions, we are currently
> looking to use this stain to identify porphyria in
> liver.  I was wondering if anyone had a copy of this
> procedure available.  I was given a paper written back
> in 1997 that has part of the procedure, but not enough
> to fully prepare a protocol for it.
>
> As always, thanks for any assistance anyone may have.
>
> Vikki Baker
> American Health Foundation
> Valhalla, New York
>

The stain for ferric iron is the Prussian Blue reaction, a histochemical
reaction dating to the 19th century.
1. Bring paraffin sections to water.
2. Incubate 30 minutes in a mixture of equal parts of 2% potassuim
ferrocyanide and 2% concentrated HCl. Mix this solution IMMEDIATELY
before use.
3. Rinse in distilled water.
4. Counterstain lightly with a red nuclear stain.
5. Dehydrate, clear and mount.

Ferric iron deposits will be blue-green.

If you want to detect ferrous iron (the Turnbull blue rxn.) substitute
potassium ferricyanide above.


Geoff
--
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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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