The von Kossa histological stain is used to quantify mineralization in cell culture and histological sections. It is named after the Hungarian physician (a.k.a. Gyula Magyary-Kossa, 1865–1944), who developed it.
Method The von Kossa stain is a staining method to illustrates mineralization such as calcium and potassium in tissues.von Kossa J (1901) Ueber die im Organismus kunstlich erzeugbaren Verkalkungen. Beit Path Anat 29:163Clark G (1981) Staining Procedures. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, MD, pp 187Lillie R, Fuller H (1976) Histopathologic technique and practical histochemistry. McGraw-Hill, New YorkMallory FB (1983) Pathological techniques: A practical manual for workers in pathological histology including directions for the performance of autopsies and for microphotography. In: Mallory NY (eds) WB Saunders, Philadelphia, PA, pp 143–144 It is a precipitation reaction in which silver ions react with phosphate in the presence of acidic material. Photochemical degradation of silver phosphate to silver happens under light illumination.
Additional methods need to be employed to confirm the presence of calcium, such as Alizarin Red S.
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