I want to stain for lipids on paraffin embedded sections. Problem is they are already embedded/sectioned. Thus, my question is if it is worth a shot treating the sections with osmium prior deparaffinization?
Thanks in advance.
Dear Jochen,
To embed a tissue in paraffin, you have to dehydrate it with alcohols and then clear it with xylene, toluene, etc.. This dissolves most of the lipids of the tissue. Osmium would not stain lipids because there are no lipids in the tissue any more. In addition, prior to deparaffinization, sections are not water-permeable (because of the paraffin) and osmium is dissolved in water. So, I'm afraid the procedure you are proposing is not feasible. That's why for electron microscopy, osmium is used before embedding.
Just another idea, in the line of Mohamed AA Mahdy suggestion. In case you were interested in myelin, paraffin embedded sections can be stained with luxol fast blue. It apparently stains myelin-specific proteins. Another idea is to try to detect immunohistochemically markers of adipocytes (as suggested by Mohamed) or oligodendrocytes (e.g. MBP: myelin basic protein), in case of myelin.
Dear Fernando and Mohamed, thanks a lot for your answers. I simply forgot to think about the process of embedding the tissue in paraffin where it also has to be dehydrated.
Will lipoproteins still be in place in the cell? In that case I guess I would not need to make new sections? I am interested in the composition lipid droplets inside the adipocytes (WAT).
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