Hi
I am currently working on staining hippocampal neurons (mouse) with Golgi-Cox procedure. Although, results are very good and impressive but I am not sure what role does each ingredient of the Golgi-Cox solution play in staining the neurons so well. I am using 5% solution of mercuric chloride, potassium dichromate and potassium chromate as a recipe for Golgi-Cox solution. Also, what is the role of Ammonia in this procedure? Can anyone please explain it to me?
Hallo Vineet, the Golgi-Cox and evan other Golgi-impregnation techniques are very old methods. And especially in this case the chemistry behind this staining is not cleared until now. I try to take together what the literature like J.A. Kiernan: "Histological & Histochmical Methods: Therory & Practice" and E. Ramón-Moliner: "The Golgi-Cox Tecnique" ( in "Contemporary Research Methods in Neuroanatomy" ,1988) tells. It is known that nervous tissue has a special affinity to siver (siver nitrate or silver chromate (origen Golgi-Technique) and/or mercury chromate. The solutione of mercuric chloride and potassium dichromate saves actually as a fixativ to protect the tissue from autolyses. But elektromicroscopic investigations showed that small pricipitate cristalls appieres along the neurofilaments of axons (Spacek, 1989). During the reaction time these cristalls become bigger and bigger and finally filled the whole cell and fiber strucure.
The pretreament of alcolholic ammonia permits a satisfactory counterstaining of unimpregnated cells with Nissl-stain for example and it improves generally the impregnation result (E. Ramón-Moliner). Hope this explanation and the literature will help you to understand what happens during the staining process.
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