Todayโs special stain is ๐๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ง ๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐!
๐๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ ๐๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ง ๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ข๐ง?
Prussian blue (or Perlโs stain) is used to highlight ๐ข๐ซ๐จ๐ง. On H&E, there are several brown pigments that can look similar, so special stains are needed to distinguish them. We most commonly see iron in the form ๐ก๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง, which is mainly found within ๐ฆ๐๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐๐ ๐๐ฌ (the bodyโs main clean-up cell) as they clean up areas of hemorrhage in tissues.
This image is a case of ๐ก๐๐๐ซ๐ญ ๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ in a mouse. When the heart fails, blood accumulates in the tiny vessels within the lungs, and occasionally can leak out into the airways. Macrophages come along and clean up this blood, which forms hemosiderin within their cytoplasm. On a Prussian blue stain, these โheart failure cellsโ can be easily identified by their blue colour!
Photo ยฉ Noahโs Arkive contributor Nation licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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