Some fluorescent counterstains for neuroanatomical studies

Abstract

Methods for counterstaining neural tissue that contains fluorescent markers have been developed. Acridine orange is useful for localizing cells that are retrogradely labeled with the fluorescent tracers true blue, bisbenzimide, and nuclear yellow because at low concentrations it yields a green Nissl stain when excited with blue, but not with ultraviolet, light; since the tracers fluoresce only when exposed to ultraviolet light, they are not masked by the counterstain. In addition, counterstaining at pH 2 increases bisbenzimide fluorescence considerably. Ethidium bromide is useful for immunohistochemistry (IHC) because it yields a bright red Nissl counterstain when excited by green light, and is only faintly visible when the fluorescein marker is excited with blue light, or when ultraviolet excitation is used. Ethidium bromide is therefore a good counterstain for fluorescent retrograde tracer and for combined IHC-retrograde tracer studies as well. Certain dyes are also useful for studies of the normal morphology of neural tissue. For example, bisbenzimide and nuclear yellow at low concentrations produce a brilliant Nissl stain at pH 2, and stain only nuclei at pH 7.2. The latter procedure may be particularly useful for cell counts. Finally, neutral red, astrazone red, and safranin-O differentially stain cells and myelinated fibers, producing fluorescence analogs of the Kluver-Barrera stain.