More Staining

Tonight we got a little more advanced in our staining procedure. Here is it:
1. Mix 3 parts PBS fixation buffer with 1 part formaldehyde in a container with a tight fitting lid. (16% formaldehyde is suggested by the protocol we used, but the only stuff we could find was unlabled).
2. Cap tightly and warm the mix in a water bath.
3. Transfer 2ml of the fixation solution above to a watch glass.
4. Remove a cover slip from the 6 well plate with forceps, invert it, and set it on top of the fixation solution.
5. Use a second watch glass to form a small chamber by inverting it and putting it on top of the first.
6. Allow the cells to fix for approximately 10 minutes.
7. Remove the cells from the watch glass and dip twice in deionized water.
8. Place coverslip cell-side-up on a paper towel.
9. Add one or two drops of stain, and allow the stain to sit for 2 minutes.
10. Rinse excess stain with deionized water
11. Place coverslip cell-side-down onto a slide.

We tried this procedure with Saffron (saffranin), aniline blue, bradford reagent, and hematoxylin. Photos from each type of stain are displayed above (eventually).