A ‘Dyeing’ Art in Microbiology  

Methodologies, practices, techniques and systems continue to change, evolve and develop in the scientific community. Throughout all of this there are often constants – spare a thought for the simple stain, a foundation in diagnostic cellular identification.

There are approximately 4500 published formulations for stains, and countless variations, not least due to personal changes, and even mistakes. From a simple colour point of view there are over 27000 (*CI) recognised colours with set wavelengths, and again countless variations, mainly due to technique.

Staining methods have long been used as an essential aid to diagnosis of disease, cellular differentiation and bacterial identification, and still have an irreplaceable role in many disciplines in hospital diagnostic pathology departments. Stains will be found in routine use in cytology, histology, haematology, microbiology and parasitology, for studying a range of specimens in both in-vitro and in-vivo conditions.

As we now move further into the molecular and electronic age, will we always need the stain?  

Will multinational corporations fade away, will the Microscope only be seen in museums, will the biomedical scientist’s skills be even further eroded and valued less? Anyone can push a button and call a help line.  Only skilled biomedical scientists can interpret a stain and use the technique.

Where did it all begin?

Ask a tourist what Delft is famous for, and it will more than likely be delicate blue collectable pottery, rather than Microscopes and staining technique origins.

Some of the most important origins of staining date back not to a scientist, but to a Dutch draper known as Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek (1632 – 1734), whose hobby was the grinding of glass, which he used to examine threads in fabrics and later a variety of biological samples. Born Thonis Philipszoon, he became known as Van Leeuwenhoek perhaps as he was born in a house on the corner of Lions Gate in Delft, Van Leeuwenhoek translating literally as From Lions Gate. (Figure 1)

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