Department of Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Institute of Zoology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany.
J Microsc. 2010 May;238(2):95-101. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2818.2009.03360.x.
In this study, the potential of the common dye Congo red as a fluorescence marker for chitin in the exoskeleton of small crustaceans and collagen in the polychaete cuticle was tested. The Congo red staining turned out to be rather efficient and yielded intensively fluorescing structures, which made a very detailed visualization by confocal laser scanning microscopy possible. The excellent results are comparable to those described for the utilization of other efficient fluorescence dyes and intense autofluorescence. The application of Congo red is easy, the fluorescence of this dye is very stable, and the excitation maximum of the structures stained with Congo red is in a range, which is covered by the lasers of most of the confocal laser scanning microscopes. These advantageous properties make the fluorescence staining by Congo red a method of choice for the detailed visualization of the external morphology of small crustaceans and polychaetes.
在这项研究中，测试了普通染料刚果红作为小甲壳类动物外骨骼中的几丁质和多毛类环节动物表皮中的胶原蛋白的荧光标记物的潜力。刚果红染色效果相当有效，产生强烈荧光的结构，通过共焦激光扫描显微镜可以进行非常详细的可视化。结果与其他高效荧光染料和强烈自发荧光的利用所描述的结果相当。刚果红的应用很简单，这种染料的荧光非常稳定，而且用刚果红染色的结构的激发最大值在大多数共焦激光扫描显微镜的激光覆盖范围内。这些有利的特性使得刚果红荧光染色成为一种选择方法，可以详细观察小型甲壳类动物和多毛类环节动物的外部形态。
