Franz Benedict E.

Suñaz ACTIVITY 4
BS PHARMA 2A MICROPARA LAB

What are the 3 types of biological stains? Describe and give examples for each.

General Stains – are used when differentiating the nucleus and cytoplasm. It also refers
to hematoxylin and eosin stain (H&E) that is used “routinely” for most tissue specimens
to reveal underlying tissue structures.

Example:
Hematoxylin and Eosin Stain Masson’s trichrome Stain

Special Stains – are stains that require alternative staining techniques to show specific
elements in a tissue that H&E staining cannot provide.

Example:
Alcian Blue Prussian blue

Heavy Metal Impregnation – is one of the staining methods where tissues are first
placed in a solution of the salt of a heavy metal. This method is mostly used for the
visualization of neural connections and certain microorganisms.

Example:
Gomori’s Methenamine stain Von Kossa stain
Give at least 3 samples of culture media (AGAR and BROTH). Describe each.

Differential Media – used for determining one microorganism from another which are
both growing on the same media. It uses indicators to visibly indicate the characteristics
of the said microorganisms.

Minimal Media – media that contains minimum nutrients possible for colony growth
generally without the presence of amino acids and are often used to grow “wild type”
microorganisms.

Selective Media – as the name suggests, it is used for the growth of only selected
microorganisms. For instance, if a microorganism is resistant to a certain antibiotic, then
that antibiotic can be added to the medium, preventing other microorganisms from
growing which do not possess the required resistance, leaving only selected cells.

Nutrient media – these media contain all the elements that most bacteria need for growth
and are non-selective, so they are used for the general cultivation and maintenance of
bacteria kept in laboratory-culture collections.

References:

Rolls, G. (2012, May 30). An Intro to Routine and Special Staining in Histopathology:
Leica Biosystems. https://www.leicabiosystems.com/knowledge-pathway/an-
introduction-to-routine-and-special-staining/
Routine and special histochemical stains. (n.d.). Vienna BioCenter. Retrieved
September 9, 2020, from
https://www.viennabiocenter.org/facilities/histopathology/stains/#:%7E:text=Hematoxylin
%20and%20eosin%20stain&text=Considered%20the%20standard%20for%20most,rese
arch%2C%20especially%20for%20preliminary%20evaluation
B. (n.d.). Culturing Bacteria | Boundless Microbiology. Lumen Learning. Retrieved
September 9, 2020, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-
microbiology/chapter/culturing-bacteria/.