Abstract
The two major limitations of Golgi–Cox method are that staining takes very long time and it is inconsistent. In this paper we describe a modification of the Golgi–Cox method, in which the tissue blocks were maintained at 37 ± 1°C during chromation for only 24 h and consistent staining of neurons in rat brain sections were observed. The method is simple, reproducible, rapid, inexpensive, and provides uniform staining with very good resolution of neuronal soma, dendrites as well as spines.
Highlights
The classical Golgi method for staining neurons in the brain was first developed by Camillio Golgi (Golgi, 1873 in Mazzarello, 1999)
As compared to Golgi method the advantage of Golgi–Cox method include increased probability of staining more number of neurons (Scheibel and Tomiyasu, 1978); it is reported to be better than the rapid Golgi method for studying neuronal dendritic morphology (Buell, 1982)
After 24 h of incubation almost all the stained neurons were completely impregnated with black stain in both the cortical and the sub-cortical regions of the sections prepared from tissue blocks incubated at 37 ± 1°C
Summary
The classical Golgi method for staining neurons in the brain was first developed by Camillio Golgi (Golgi, 1873 in Mazzarello, 1999). Several modifications of the method have been tried which include variations in pH (Bertram and Ihrig, 1957; Gonzalez-Burgos et al, 1992; Angulo et al, 1994), application of vacuum (Friedland et al, 2006), coating of brain blocks with egg yolk (Zhang et al, 2003), use of microwaves (Armstrong and Parker, 1986; Marani et al, 1987; Zhang et al, 2003) and variations in temperature of the tissue incubating medium (Armstrong and Parker, 1986; Berbel, 1986; Marani et al, 1987; Angulo et al, 1994) These modifications were aimed at faster staining process by decreasing the time for staining, reducing precipitation, promoting uniform crystallization, increasing reliability, and reproducibility of staining neurons by the Golgi method. Apart from inconsistency and lack of uniform, reproducible results, requirement of exceptionally long time to achieve neuronal staining is another major disadvantage of both the Golgi and Golgi–Cox methods, which practically limits the use of these methods
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