A PRELIMINARY NOTE on the GOLGI IMPREGNATION of FORMALIN-HARDENED BRAIN

Differential staining of glia and neurons by modified Golgi-Cox method

“…Golgi stain has been used both in animals as well as in autopsied human brain tissue for neuronal staining (Gibb and Kolb, 1998;Glaser and Van der Loos, 1981;Millhouse, 1969;Spacek, 1989;Zhang et al, 2003). Using this method although some authors reported significant impregnations of stain in neurons (Bolton, 1898;Zhang et al, 2003), many authors have expressed their concerns on its uncertainty of staining (Buell, 1982;Williams, 1983), while using animal-as well as human-tissue post-mortem samples (Friedland et al, 2006;Globus and Scheibel, 1966;Zhang et al, 2003). Commenting on Buell's staining efficiency (1982) Williams (1983) mentioned that he never achieved good rapid-Golgi impregnation of a tissue which was fixed in formalin for more than a month; he recommended formalin prefixing of tissues for less than 5 days for obtaining better results.…”