Allison,
   It's my understanding that you are voicing a problem that is not the 
stain, but the silver residue that is forming on the slides.  It has been my 
experience that some types of adhesives used in the waterbath such as "stay 
on" has a high affinity for silver, resulting in a "dirty" slide.   
Experiment by performing a parallel run such as:
1) adhesive in waterbath, using a + slide
2) no adhesive in waterbath, using + slide
3) no adhesive in waterbath, using a plain slide
As long as the sections are dried adequately, tissue adhesion has not been a 
problem (except for the usual types such as bone, brain, etc).
With this experiment I have found that silver stains performed on sections 
mounted on a plain glass slide picked up from a waterbath w/o adhesives 
eliminates the silver residue on the slides.  Slide No. 2 in the experiment 
should tell you if it is the + slide you using that is causing the silver 
percipitant.  Anyway, this has been my experience.  Let me know if you find 
this to be true, also.  Good luck.
Patty


>From: "Scott, Allison D" 
>To: "'histonet@pathology.swmed.edu'" 
>Subject: Dirty Background on GMS Stain
>Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 09:38:17 -0500
>
>Can anyone make a suggestion on how to eliminate the diry background that
>forms on the slide when doing a GMS.  We use a 60 degree oven for the GMS.
>The silver is preheated in the oven before putting the slides in.  The
>silver is filtered prior to preheating, and we use 1% periodic acid instead
>of 5% chromic acid, also we use plus slides for the sections.   Any
>suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance.
>Allison Scott HT(ASCP)
>Histology Supervisor
>LBJ Hospital
>Houston, Texas
>

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