The use of improved ruthenium red staining for the ultrastructural detection of proteoglycan aggregates in normal skin and lichen myxoedematosus.

Improved ruthenium red staining has been applied to normal human skin and lichen myxoedematosus skin lesions for the detection of the fine structure proteoglycan aggregates. In 4 samples of normal skin and in a patient with lichen myxoedematosus, the typical fine ultrastructures of proteoglycan aggregates, i.e., many short irregularly-curled filaments of varying lengths attached to long and rather straight filaments of hyaluronic acid were shown. Although lichen myxoedematosus is thought to be due to the faulty formation of proteoglycan aggregates, we suggest a different view, that this improved method of ruthenium red staining is useful for the detection of proteoglycan aggregates, and provides a better preparation for electron microscopy.