Question

An example of supravital staining solution :

• A. Leishman stain
• B. Feilds stain
• C. MGG
• D. Brilliant cresyl blue

Answer 1

Answer:

D. Brilliant cresyl blue

Understanding Supravital Staining

• Definition: Supravital staining is a method of staining used in microscopy to examine living cells that have been removed from an organism.

• Mechanism: Unlike vital staining (which occurs in a living organism), supravital staining involves applying a dye to cells immediately after removal from the body while the cells are still alive and metabolically active.

• Primary Usage: It is frequently utilized in hematology to study reticulocytes (immature red blood cells) and for the identification of Heinz bodies in red blood cells.

Common Supravital Stains

• New Methylene Blue: This is the most widely used stain for reticulocyte counting. It causes the precipitation of ribosomal RNA within the reticulocytes, which appears as a blue reticulum or granules under a microscope.

• Brilliant Cresyl Blue: Another classical stain often used for the same purpose as New Methylene Blue, particularly for detecting reticulocytes and Heinz bodies.

• Neutral Red: A basic dye often used to stain vacuoles and granules in living cells; it is frequently used to assess cell viability in tissue culture.

• Janus Green B: Specifically used for staining mitochondria in living cells, as it is oxidized to a colored form only in the presence of oxygenated mitochondria.