Are there specific stains for different cellular compartments?
Since the imaging contrast in WETSEM® technology is based on variations in atomic numbers, heavy metal stains give the best contrast when imaging biological samples. Due to different affinities of heavy metals to various molecules, some cellular structures stain more strongly and can be visualized. For example, osmium tetroxide has a high affinity for lipids, and can be used for staining lipid vesicles. Most of the heavy metals stain the nuclei, and some of them, such as gold chloride, can be used for staining chromosomes. However, since the heavy metal stains are usually quite non-specific, for detailed localization studies immunogold labeling may be required.
