Methods for differentiation of collagen, muscular and elastic fibers in stereomicroscopic specimens

The A. describes a technique for demonstrating collagen, muscular and elastic fibers in dry mesoscopic specimens, treated by the Semper method and submitted to dissection under the stereomicroscope. The technique holds essentially to the reconnaissance of these types of fibers in fragments or pellicles of said specimens, stained by the methods of Azan and Weigert-Moore, modified, without needing to take succour in histologic methodology applicable to other preparations, which, according to the A., would cause a break of continuity in the observation, and also in the interpretation of findings, and this is not always easy to be re-instated with ease and precision. The method proposed has the principal aim to correctly distinguish between muscular and collagen bundles practically "in loco" and which are already outside the resolution power provided by the Semper method. In this technique the muscular bundles are stained red, the collagen bundles in sea-blue, and the elastic ones in deep blue, up to their most delicate nets, allowing for a very clear and transparent tridimensional analysis of the functional systems formed by these fibers.