Reticulum Stain

High quality stain kits and unsurpassed
reliability from American MasterTech

Throughout the timeline of histology, there have been many methods and examples of a reticulum stain. These reticular fibers staining techniques included Gomori, Gordon and Sweet’s, Snook’s, Laidlaw’s, Wilder’s, Modified Gridley’s, and Foot’s, which were generally performed during the differential diagnosis of various types of tumors or liver disease. Reticular fibers are very thin and delicately woven strands of type III collagen. These fibers are not visible with the H & E stain, but have a carbohydrate component that allows coloration by the periodic acid-Schiff reaction. They also react very well with ammoniacal and methenamine silver stains. When performing a reticulum stain, the tissues need to be oxidized with an oxidizing agent such as potassium permanganate or phosphomolybdic acid.

The one method not mentioned above is Chandler’s. American MasterTech created the Chandler’s Precision™ Reticulum Stain which stains reticulum fibers without background staining in less than 30 minutes. Unlike many of the previous methods, Chandler’s Precision™ Reticulum Stain does not use radioactive Uranyl Nitrate or time consuming Lithium Silver solutions. The Chandler’s Precision™ Reticulum Stain comes boxed up in kit containing pre-measured Silver Solution vials and a specially formulated Nuclear Fast Red to reduce flocculation. 1% potassium permanganate serves as the oxidizer. An ammoniacal silver developer solution serves as the primary stain, producing brown to black reticulum fibers against a pink to red background stain.

For those that would rather use a methenamine silver as the primary stain, American MasterTech offers the Jones Basement Membrane Reticulum Stain Kit which produces results in just 20 minutes, including a 10-minute microwave procedure. This kit is suitable in lieu of and comparable to the Periodic Acid/Methenamine Silver Procedure for Basement Membranes.

Don’t forget to pick up a pack of Reticulum Fibers Control Slides to complete the stain!