Chuck Churukian published his version of this method in J of
Histotechnology, 2000 or 2001.  

I have used it for years, per his prepublication, and have never looked
back at the messy propylene glycol ORO staining method.  

I guess I took it on blind faith that dextrin (it is a specific dextrin,
Type III) stabilized the solution, and I always filter before using, and
have found it to be stable for at least a year (months was recommended).
Even though you make up the ORO in  absolute isopropyl alcohol, you make a
stock/working solution with the dextrin.  It is cheaper to do also,
propylene glycol is pricey compared to Dextrin/ORO method.  

The joy of staining is, NBF fixed/frozen sections, air dried for 30 min to
1 hour on Plus Charge slides, then immersed directly into this stain,
gently water rinsed, counterstain with hematoxylin, etc, STAY on the slide,
and the propylene glycol steps (thick, gooey stuff!) are eliminated, and
just getting this stuff rinsed off a slide was lengthier.  I had worse luck
keeping frozen sections on slides in all propylene glycol steps than with
gentle water rinse following ORO/Dextrin method.  

Overall it comes down to which method kept my sections on the slide (even
though both methods give equivalent staining results). I have opted for a
cleaner, easier way to do the staining, and blindly accept the dextrin
stabilization concept, seemed plausible to me.   

  
Gayle Callis
MT,HT,HTL(ASCP)
Histopathology Supervisor
Veterinary Molecular Biology - Marsh Lab
Montana State University - Bozeman
19th and Lincoln St
Bozeman MT 59717-3610

406 994-6367
406 994-4303 (FAX)