Evaluating Three Histochemical Stains (Solochrome Azurine Stain (Asa), Walton Stain, and Modified Hematoxylin) used in Tissue Aluminium Detection.

Aluminium in recent times has been considered a possible risk factor in some diseases in humans, animals and plants, and exposure to aluminium may pose a health hazard. Studies have pointed to the fact that increasing acidification of the environment has made aluminium more bio-available and therefore, able to cause disturbances in the function of human and animal organisms. More importantly also, is the use of aluminium as based adjuvants in human vaccinations, and its fate being unclear. Our study aimed to evaluate histochemical stains currently used to detect Al in tissue samples for their sensitivity using agar blocks as a preliminary study to validate the Walton histological stain use in detecting aluminium toxicity in fish. Visual estimation (colour change and staining intensity) of aluminium-stained sections using the Solochrome Azurine stain (ASA), Walton stain, and the modified haematoxylin were carried out. All three stains indicated the presence or absence of aluminium through colour changes, but the ASA gave more distinct dose- response intensity in staining.