An easily controlled method for staining mitochondria.

THE great disadvantages of the standard staining methods for mitochondria are that they are very complicated and cannot be applied to different tissues until suitable times for the action of the various stains have been worked out by a long process of trial and error. The following method is easy to control and apply. Destaining and restaining are quickly carried out, times may be worked out on a single section, and, as each reagent is used for a single purpose (not, for example, as a simultaneous differentiator and stain), each stage may be controlled separately. Mitochondria are red, cytoplasm is pale blue or colourless, nuclei are medium blue, and plasmosomes (nucleoli) pink or red.