Re: differential stain for monocyte cell cultures
From: | "J. A. Kiernan" <jkiernan@uwo.ca> |
On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, Becky Dilallo wrote:
> Could anyone give me a differential stain for staining
> monocytes in a cell culture. I am thinking of a Wright
> Giemsa but I am not positive how to do it with cell culture
> material. Thanks in advance.
Wright's or Giemsa's stain will show all cells.
Monocytes in blood stain selectively for naphthyl acetate
esterase, a lysosomal enzyme in their cytoplasm. (T-cells
have a few tiny +ve granules but being lymphocytes they
have much less cytoplasm than monocytes.) There are
various histochemical methods for the enzyme, usually
providing a red end-product. Nuclei can be counterstained
with heamalum if desired.
Most technical manuals contain instructions. For example:
Elias, J. (1982) Principles and Techniques in Diagnostic
Histopathology. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes. Whatever you do,
don't just follow a list of instructions for an enzyme
histochemical method without first learning how it works.
----------------------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London, Canada N6A 5C1
kiernan@uwo.ca
http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan
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