Hello all,
I've been trying to stain tiny organs with eosin yellowish acid 87 in ethanol 70% before paraffin embedding but the staining does not last after the dehydration process. I've read some people using eosin for that purpose and I was wondering which type is used. Thanks for your precious help.
1% eosin is used normally for staining sections. A stronger solution (saturated) is used for staining tissue at the time of dissection.
Eosin is a counterstain done after hematoxylin and is an acidic dye that targets basic structures. The resulting color is a pink/red hue, and structures that attract eosin are called eosinophilic.[1] The cytoplasm is an example of an eosinophilic structure.
Eosin is soluble in water and ethanol up to 96%. So I think your eosin is washed out in the following reagens while dehydration. Maybe you have more success, if you put the eosin in the last 96% ethanol.
When using eosin, have in mind, that it is a fluorochrome and may influence some analysis that use immunfluorescence or similar.
I have never practised this staining with eosin. We use blue and soft sponges for GI-biopsies (for example) with the side-effect of a better contrast. So finding it in the cassette is easier.
The addition of 20 ml of 1% alcoholic eosin (Eosin 515 LT from Leica) to the last 100% alcohol in the tissue processor has been used in the previous institution where I worked for so many years and has proven to be very useful in increasing the visibility of white minute tissue fragments even core biopsies.
Thanks everyone for your recommendations ! Toluidine blue seems to be the most resistant to the dehydration process
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