New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts
Improved fibre preparation technique for methylene blue staining of wool
fibres
C. E. McCLOGHRY
G. C. UPHILL
CSIRO Division of Animal Production
Pastoral Research Laboratory
Private Mail Bag, Armidale
NSW 2350, Australia
Abstract Ortho- and paracortex can be differentiated in wool
fibres by a methylene blue staining procedure. The procedure, though effective,
is slow and tedious because of the method currently used for fibre preparation.
The aim of this study was to simplify the fibre preparation technique. Wool
fibre bundles, obtained from midside wool samples, were cleaned in solvent and
dried. Cotton thread was tied to the tip of each fibre bundle which was then
drawn through a length of fine Silastic
tubing. The bundles were
hardened by firstly soaking in nitrocellulose then chloroform. The tubing was
removed from around the bundles, and the fibre bundles were dried, trimmed, and
cut into lengths (10 mm) which were then immersed in molten paraffin, embedded
in paraffin blocks, and sectioned. The fibre sections were stained using a
methylene blue staining protocol. This technique has proved to be an efficient
and effective means of identifying regions of ortho- and paracortex within wool
fibres.
Keywords fibre preparation; orthocortex; paracortex; wool;
methylene blue
New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 1997, Vol. 40: 79-81
0028-8233/97/4001-0079 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1997
Short communication
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (235K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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