See Also: negative staining(medicine)
Herbal medicine (botanical medicine, herbology, phytomedicine)(health)
Staining(medicine)
progressive staining(medicine)
Immunohistochemical staining(health)
silver staining(medicine)
regressive staining(medicine)
optical staining(medicine)
dispersion staining(medicine)
homogeneously staining region(medicine)

negative staining (medicine)


negative staining
Microscopic technique in which the object stands out against a dark background of stain. For electron microscopy the sample is suspended in a solution of an electron dense stain such as sodium phosphotungstate and then sprayed onto a support grid. The stain dries as structureless solid and fills all crevices in the sample. When examined in the electron microscope the sample appears as a light object against a dark background. Quite fine structural detail can be observed using negative staining and it has been used extensively to study the structure of viruses and other particulate samples.