I stained decal-ed bone with Alizarin Red once out of curiosity and got
no staining at all. I'm sure it would stain (probably patchily, and
probably at the center and not the edges) if it wasn't completely
decal-ed, but then it would be crunchy when you sectioned it, too.
There is a technique for using AR on bone, but I think it's used along
with Alcian Blue to show cartilage, and it's for whole instructional
mounts of skeletons.

Jeffrey Crews, HTL (ASCP)

On Fri, 11 May 2001 13:20:35 +0000 Karen Bowden <kbowden@ucsd.edu>
writes:
>Hi
>I have mouse knees that I am going to decalcify and embed in paraffin 
>so
>I can stain them with Saf.O to see GAG content.  I was asked to stain
>them with Alizarin Red to see calcium.  Now logic tells me that if I
>decalcify these specimens there would be no reason to use Alizarin 
>Red,
>and since the mice will be 1 month, 3 months, and 8 months old I'm 
>sure
>I would need to decal so I can section them.  Is my logic sound or 
>would
>really get some kind of staining even after the calcium is removed?  
>(I
>can't MMA embed because of the Saf.O staining).
>
>Karen Bowden
>kbowden@ucsd.edu
>UCSD
>Ortho Dept.
>
>
>

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