Counterstaining and mounting of autoradiographed in situ hybridization slides

The morphology of specimen sections and the identity of specific areas are defined by lightly counterstaining sections. After staining, slides are dehydrated, mounted with coverslips, hardened, and cleaned for examination under the microscope. In the protocols provided in this unit, Giemsa stains predominantly the nuclei, hematoxylin/eosin stain differentiates both the nuclei and cytoplasm, toluidine blue staining is a simpler procedure that lightly stains both nuclei and cytoplasm, and Hoechst staining of nuclei provides a fast, easy, and effective way to simultaneously view the entire tissue and the regions of hybridization.