There's another way to do this: corrosion-casting. The blood vessels
are filled with a resin such as methacrylate, and the tissue digested
away. Capillaries show up nicely (even the nuclei of the endothethial
cells lining the vessels can be located), and vessel densities are
easily determined, as well as other properties.

  Visualization is usually done in a SEM, but if colored resin is
used, it can be embedded in a second resin and the whole thing
sectioned.

There are many papers on this method, but Fred Hossler (East
Tennesse?) is a good name on which to do a search.

Phil

>Good Afternoon Folks,
>Has anyone had experience with staining capillaries in skeletal muscles? I
>have a researcher that is interested in looking at the density of
>capillaries in skeletal muscle,versus other small vessels under a variety of
>conditions. He  was thinking of trying an Immuno to visualize. I was hoping
>that someone "out there in Histoland"  had a great suggestion either of a
>special stain or an appropriate antibody.
>Thank you in advance!
>Mary Georger
>University of Rochester Center for Cardiovascular Research

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Philip Oshel
Supervisor, AMFSC and BBPIC microscopy facilities
Department of Animal Sciences
University of Wisconsin
1675 Observatory Drive
Madison,  WI  53706 - 1284
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