There are so many variants of HE protocols. Please tell us yours in detail to see where the comunity can help.
may i asked about whether the staining is ready to use or you prepared it?
Again, tell us more details.
My HE: 3-5 µm paraffinslides; deparaffination 2x5 min in xylen, rehydration 96-80-50-dest. water 1-2 min each, 10 min Mayers hemalun, 5 min bluing in tapwater, 2 min in 2% aequous eosin (ph 5), rinse in tapwater 30 sek, rinse in 96%, dehydration 3x100% 1-2 min, clearing and mounting.
Harris hematoxylin is mainly used as regressive stain with over- and destaining. Eg. 5 min Harris and then differentiation in acidified water until the wanted intensity. If your stain is too light the cause can be too short staining time or too long or aggressive differentiation.
The purplish effect of HE-staining is due to eosin-staining of the nucleo-proteins. If your nuclei look too blue, it may be a lost of eosin.
Bluing after hematoxylin leads to a shift of red-brown to blue in relation to the pH of the bluing solution. The more basic the more blue. Around pH 6-7 the colour stays more "purple". But as I wrote above I think what you want is more eosin-staining in the nuclei.
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