A modified method of fine-granular cationic iron colloid preparation: its use in light and electron microscopic detection of anionic sites in the rat kidney glomerulus and certain other tissues

Ferric chloride, when boiled with hydrazine hydrate and cacodylic acid, is converted into a fine cationic iron (ferric hydroxide) colloid which consists of 0.5-1.5 nm electron-dense granules, and gives a distinct Prussian blue reaction. This colloid allows light and electron microscopic detection of ionized anionic sites in tissues at a wide pH range of 0.8-7.6. It is smaller in size and more stable, and assures longer and greater staining of tissues, especially at low pH levels, than the iron colloid prepared with sodium or ammonium cacodylate by Seno and his associates (1983, 1984, 1985). Some light and electron micrographs of the rat kidney, spleen and other organs stained with our colloid are presented as examples. These micrographs confirm that the glomerular podocyte end-foot surface facing the Bowman's capsular space is strongly negative-charged. They also show that almost all lymphoid cells around the arteries in the splenic white pulp and thymic cortex contain strongly negative-charged nuclei and that the distal convoluted and collecting urinary tubules are more negative-charged than the proximal convoluted tubules.