Staining of Bacteria in Tissue Sections: A Reliable Gram Stain Method

Abstract

A consistently reliable Gram stain procedure which differentially stains both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in tissue sections is presented. A comparison of this new method with well known Gram stain methods demonstrates its superiority in differentially staining Gram-positive and Gramnegative bacteria in control (experimental) tissue lesions when types of fixatives, duration of tissue storage prior to paraffin embedment, types of embedding agents, and section thickness are varied. This method has also proved superior to others in demonstrating many different types of bacteria and other infectious agents in sections of tissue derived from human lesions.