There is a stain, I used many years ago called a Movat Pentachrome.
It gave beautiful staining to most connective tissue, in one section,
including the mucopolysacharides in cartilage.
There have been several modifications to this stain.


----- Original Message -----
From: Gayle Callis <uvsgc@montana.edu>
To: <histonet@pathology.swmed.edu>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 5:48 AM
Subject: Cartilage stains


> Depends on what you want to see, specific mucopolysaccharides
> (histochemical staining with alcian blue, various pH's), general cartilage
> staining (toluidine blue works nicely),  semiquantitation of proteoglycans
> without EDTA decalcification that extracts these (safranin O/Fast Green)
>
> A good H&E, particularly Ehrlichs hematoxylin also demonstrates cartilage.
>
>
> Gayle Callis
> MT,HT,HTL(ASCP)
> Histopathology Supervisor
> Veterinary Molecular Biology
> Montana State University - Bozeman
> Bozeman MT 59717-3610
>
> 406 994-6367
> 404 994-4303 (FAX)
>
>