PROCEEDINGS |
Most stains for acidic mucins are time-consuming to prepare and have short working lives. Zirconyl hematoxylin is easily prepared and works for a year or more. It is made by adding 5 ml freshly-made 0.01% sodium iodate, 400 mg zirconyl chloride octahydrate, 45 ml 22% aqueous glycerol, and 5 ml glacial acetic acid, in that order, to 100 mg of hematoxylin in 5 ml of absolute ethanol. Zirconyl hematoxylin stains acidic mucins magenta. It stains the same mucins as Mowry's colloidal iron in mouse, sheep, and rhesus monkey salivary glands. It shows the same number of goblet cells in mouse rectum and duodenum as colloidal iron does. Like colloidal iron, zirconyl hematoxylin stains the mucin of cancerous prostate while leaving normal prostate unstained. Since the pH of the staining solution is around 1.4, the species that acts as a mordant for the hematoxylin is probably the hydrated tetrazirconium octahydroxide cluster. This clusters' size and charge would allow it to interact with multiple sites on the acidic mucin.