Abstract
One of the nonspecific reactions of alcian blue is its inability to demonstrate the acid mucopolysaccharide electrostatically bound to proteins. A typical example is acid mucopolysaccharide present in the collagen bundles. This was demonstrated by treating the tissue with urea solution prior to fixation. The acid mucopolysaccharides in mast cell granules and in cartilage matrix and DNA of cell nuclei were also shown to be incompletely masked to larger basic dyes such as alcian blue. Smaller dyes had a better affinity to the polyanions in these tissue elements. By urea treatment, the alcianophilia of these materials was much enhanced. The precipitation study in the test tube showed that the negative charge of DNA was stronger than that of hyaluronic acid. From these facts, it was concluded that high histochemical specificity of alcian blue to acid mucopolysaccharide against DNA might be explained by two factors; by its large molecular size and by the presence of proteins which protect DNA from electrostatic combination with alcian blue in histological sections.
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