Two basic types of preparation are used to visualize specimens with a light microscope: wet mounts and fixed specimens.
The simplest type of preparation is the wet mount, in which the specimen is placed in a drop of liquid on the slide. A liquid specimen can be directly deposited on the slide using a dropper. Solid specimens, such as skin scraping, can be placed on the slide before adding a drop of liquid to prepare the wet mount. Sometimes the liquid is simply water, but stains are often added to enhance contrast. Once the liquid has been added to the slide, a coverslip is placed on top, and the specimen is ready for examination under the microscope.
The second method of preparing specimens for light microscopy is fixation. The “fixing” of a sample refers to the process of attaching cells to a slide. Fixation is often achieved by heating (heat fixing) or chemically treating the specimen. In addition to attaching the specimen to the slide, fixation also kills microorganisms in the specimen, stopping their movement and metabolism while preserving the integrity of their cellular components for observation.
To heat-fix a sample, a thin layer of the specimen is spread on the slide (called a smear), and the slide is then briefly heated over a heat source. Chemical fixatives are often preferable to heat for tissue specimens. Chemical agents such as acetic acid, ethanol, methanol, formaldehyde (formalin), and glutaraldehyde can denature proteins, stop biochemical reactions, and stabilize cell structures in tissue samples.
In addition to fixation, staining is almost always applied to color certain features of a specimen before examining it under a light microscope. Stains, or dyes, contain salts made up of a positive ion and a negative ion. Depending on the type of dye, the positive or the negative ion may be the chromophore (the colored ion); and the other uncolored ion is called the counterion. If the chromophore is the positively charged ion, the stain is classified as a basic dye; if the negative ion is the chromophore, the stain is considered an acidic dye.
Dyes are selected for staining based on the chemical properties of the dye and the specimen being observed, which determine how the dye will interact with the specimen. In most cases, it is preferable to use a positive stain, a dye that will be absorbed by the cells or organisms being observed, adding color to objects of interest to make them stand out against the background. However, there are scenarios where it is advantageous to use a negative stain absorbed by the background but not by the cells or organisms in the specimen. Negative staining produces an outline or silhouette of the organisms against a colorful background.
Because cells typically have negatively charged cell walls, the positive chromophores in basic dyes tend to stick to the cell walls, making them positive stains. Thus, basic dyes such as basic fuchsin, crystal violet, malachite green, methylene blue, and safranin typically serve as positive stains. On the other hand, the negatively charged chromophores in acidic dyes are repelled by negatively charged cell walls, making them negative stains. Commonly used acidic dyes include acid fuchsin, eosin, and rose bengal.
Some staining techniques involve the application of only one dye to the sample; others require more than one dye. In simple staining, a single dye is used to emphasize particular structures in the specimen. A simple stain will generally make all of the organisms in a sample appear the same color, even if the sample contains more than one type of organism. In contrast, differential staining distinguishes organisms based on their interactions with multiple stains. In other words, two organisms in a differentially stained sample may appear different colors. Differential staining techniques commonly used in clinical settings include Gram staining, acid-fast staining, endospore staining, flagella staining, and capsule staining.
This text is adapted from Openstax, Microbiology 2e, Section 2.4: Staining microscopic specimens
