Staining methods for morphometric studies of parietal and gastrin cells in the rat stomach

In order to select the most suitable procedures for quantitative microscopy of both parietal and gastrin cell populations in the rat stomach, various staining methods were compared. For parietal cell identification in particular, the following procedures were tested: i) the modification of the haematoxylin-eosin method proposed by Marks and Drysdale, ii) the haematoxylin-eosin-saffron fluorochrome stain on paraffin sections, iii) the haematoxylin-azophloxin-saffron fluorochrome stain on paraffin sections, and iv) the May-Grunwald-Giemsa stain on thin sections from plastic-embedded specimens. This last provided the best results in parietal cell individualization and seemed to be the most suitable method for an accurate image analysis. Immunohistochemistry was the only unequivocal way to identify gastrin cells. Two variant procedures were examined; a) the agar-paraffin embedding technique, and b) the combination of a mucin staining with the immunoperoxidase reaction. The first technique provided an easier procedure for handling seriate strips of gastric mucosa for proper enumeration of immunostained cells. The second was presented as a promising variant procedure for a combined investigation of both G-cell population and mucin secretion patterns under differnt experimental conditions in the same specimen.