Giemsa Staining Solution (10X)

Giemsa Staining Solution is a mix of an anionic dye eosin, and a cationic dye azure. Giemsa staining is a widely used technique in histopathology and it acts as a golden standard for blood sample staining.

Eosin being acidic, bind to the mature red blood cells and eosinophils to give a pink color. While azure is basic and binds to acidic components like basophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes, producing a blue-purple or purple-red color. Neutrophils can react with eosin and azure together and are stained to pale purple. Each type of blood cell stains differently and can be distinguished morphologically. Similarly, this solution stains the basic cytoplasm pink, and stains the acidic nuclei blue-purple or purple-red. Giemsa staining is also used in karyotyping of the chromosomes. After Giemsa staining, chromosomes show different G banding and can be distinguished easily.

Giemsa staining solution is often used in combination with Wright staining solution.

The staining efficiency of this solution is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Image of Hela cells stained with this solution