The reactions of cuprolinic blue with glycoconjugate-containing tissues in light microscopy.

Abstract

In a series of mammalian tissues, the reactions of cuprolinic blue with glycoconjugates were studied under light microscopy. The dye solutions were adjusted to pHs 1.0, 1.5, 2.5, 3.0 and 5.6 and applied to different glycoconjugate-containing tissues in combination with certain chemical modification and enzyme digestion procedures. The results obtained revealed that (a) the ortho- and metachromatic staining intensities with the dye increase with advancing pH levels, (b) most proteoglycan-containing structures exhibit purple shades of metachromatic stainings at higher pHs, whereas glycoprotein-containing ones show reddish shades of staining at every pH level and (c) the effects of chemical modification and enzyme digestion procedures upon the staining reactions lead to a possible correlation of individual glycoconjugates with their cuprolinic blue stainabilities in tissues.