H&E STAINING Lab Lec # 4

What is H&E ? The hematoxylin and eosin stain (H&E) Use in histology and histopathology laboratories. ability to demonstrate a wide range of normal and abnormal cell and tissue components Benefit! it is a relatively simple stain to carry out on paraffin or frozen sections. The first method of choice to determine whether a biopsy tissue is cancerous or not.

How it works? Hematoxylin Eosin has a deep blue-purple color and stains nucleic acids by a complex, incompletely understood reaction. nuclei are stained blue, Eosin is pink and stains proteins nonspecifically. cytoplasm and extracellular matrix have varying degrees of pink staining. if abundant polyribosomes are present, the cytoplasm will have a distinct blue cast. Well-fixed cells show considerable intranuclear detail. Nuclei show varying cell-type- and cancer-type-specific patterns of condensation of heterochromatin (hematoxylin staining) that are diagnostically very important.

Procedure Dewax Hydrate Add Hematoxylin Apply Eosin Dehydrate & Mount (paraffin wax –hyrdophobic/impervious to aqueous reagents) Hydrate (aqueous reagents can penetrate) Add Hematoxylin Add mordant (for binding) Add alkaline solution (for more blueing) Apply Eosin Dehydrate & Mount