A novel non-perfusion Timm method for human brain tissue.

A simple modification of the Timm sulphide-silver method for unfixed brain tissue is described. Instead of perfusing animals with a sodium sulphide solution, sulphide treatment was performed by exposure to mounted frozen sections to H2S gas. The staining pattern in the rat brain obtained with this modification is similar to that With the Neo-Timm method, primarily yielding staining of the neuropil of telencephalic structures. Because perfusion is not required, the modified Timm method can also be applied to postmortem human tissue. Application of the modified Timm stain to the human tissue is exemplified on the hippocampus with special attention to the non-mossy fiber staining.