Crystal Violet Stain

Crystal Violet Stain

Crystal Violet

(lieb, 1947) 

Fixation: 10% formalin or alcoholic fixative. 

solution: 

Crystal violet stock solution:


crystal violet, C.I. 42555 (14.0-15.0 gm.); saturated in 95% ethyl alcohol 100.0 ml. 

Crystal violet Working solution:




stock solution 10.0 ml. 



distilled water 300.0 ml. 



hydrochloric acid, concentrated 1.0 ml. 



Also See Amyloid Staining







Crystal violet Procedure:




1. Run frozen sections or deparaffinized paraffin sections down to water.

2. Stain in working solution: 5 minutes to 24 hours.

3. Rinse in water.

4. Mount in Abopon.





Results:




Amyloid — purple 

Other tissue elements including hyalin — blue 



Staining Comments:




Acid in the staining solution makes it self-differentiating and staining time is flexible. Lieb suggests that if there is only a small amoiunt 

of amyloid in the tissue, thicker sections should be cut to make the color reaction more clearly visible.  Slides moimted in Abopon have 

retained their color for 2 years.  

Abopon mounts must be sealed with ringing cement for permanency.  Gomori {1933) otitlines a simple method for permanent

motints:



1. Float paraffin sections on dye solution: 15-20 miniues.

2. Float sections on distilled water to remove excess dye.

3. Float on 1-2% acetic acid, aqueous, to differentiate.

4. Mount on slides in usual fashion and dry.

5. Remove paraffin with xylene and mount.  This preserves the metachromasia of the crystal violet.