THE STAINING OF COLLAGEN WITH ELASTIC TISSUE STAINS

We have demonstrated that acetylation or benzoylation of formalin-fixed collagen from the human, rat, or mouse induces its reactivity with the elastic tissue stains: orcein, Weigert's resorcin fuchsin, orcinol-new fuchsin, and Verhoeff's, and blocks the Masson trichrome and the Van Gieson stains which are used to identify collagen. Deamination of collagen induces its reactivity with Gomori's aldehyde fuchsin perhaps because of a net shift of the reaction of collagen to the acid side.