Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Acid fast staining

Acid-fast stains are used to identify Mycobacterium, as well as diagnosing tuberculosis. Mycobacterium are known for having waxes or lipids present in the cell wall for added protection of the cell. The acid fast stain preformed was to indicate if our bacteria had waxes/lipids within the cell wall(acid-fast) or non-acid-fast.
The steps are as follows..
1. Smear bacteria onto a slide and add a drop of h20 to mix
2. Dry and fixate smear by heating flame
3. Place the slide on a beaker with boiling water
4. Cover the smear with Kinyoun’s carbolfuchin for 5 minutes
5. Place filter paper on slide and saturate with Ziehl-Neelsen carbolfuchsin with a dropper
6. Continue to pour stain for 3-5 minutes as it evaporates, do not allow to dry
7. Remove paper and allow slide to cool
8. Rinse slide with water and add decolorizing agent to stain
9. Rinse the slide
10. Cover with methylene blue for 2 minutes and rinse
11. Blot slide and analyze results under microscope


Our bacteria turned out to be non-acid fast because the results were purplish/blue, where the acid fast stains would be a orangish/redish color

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