A Metachromatic Stain for Neural Tissue

The need for rapid histological feedback on neural tissue is ever present. Although there are several stains which can be readily used for staining either cell bodies or fiber tracts, adequate contrasting stains which are both rapid and easy to apply are not generally available. In 1936 Chang presented a technique for whole brains utilizing the metachromatic properties of thionin. Unfortunately this procedure was very time consuming. For the last several years we have worked with several variations of this stain and have found that thionin can be reliably used as a polychrome stain for sections of neural tissue obtained from a freezing microtome.