Nancy,
               I am not sure that this is the fault of the staining solution and
suspect that changing the staining times will not solve the problem. When you
have thick and thin areas in sections or smears you will inevitably get
variation in the staining,  and with smears there is no way to get a completely
uniform thickness. Non uniform staining  can often be minimized by using dilute
solutions and longer staining times but I do not think that this will help in
this particular situation.     Suggest that you stick with the staining solution
and times that you have and try to avoid bone spicules in the smear if you can
as these will tend to cause some uneven clumps.
Barry

Nancy Maronto wrote:

> Hi Histonetters,
> Is there anyone who's lab is staining bone marrows smears(animal species -
> rat, mouse, etc.) with Richard-Allan's May-Grunwald stain solution?  We have
> tried a few combinations of this stain: Increasing the time of the stain (10
> min) and stain/buffer (10 min), and different timings of these two steps.
> This resulted in a desirable stain for the thin areas of the smear, with too
> blue staining in the thick areas.  Technical support from Richard-Allan
> suggests changing the stain/buffer concentrations without changing timings.
> We will try this, but would like any other input from techs that may have
> this worked out.  Slides are fixed in methanol. We usually try a few
> combinations at the same time to save tech time.  Thanks in advance for your
> help.
>
> Nancy Maronto
> Histology Special Procedures Lab
> MPI Research
> Mattawan, MI
>
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