Munire Shataer; Saimire Shataer; Liao Libin; Li Tian & Bai Shengbin

Human skin melanin was stained using the Fontana’s silver nitrate method and Schmorl method. The results showed that, in the Fontana’s silver nitrate method, melanin and silver-bound cells were black and other tissues were red. When stained using the Schmorl method, effects on melanin differed based on whether the nuclei were stained. When the nucleus was stained, melanin appeared blue- black or blue-green, and other tissue structures were purple. When the nucleus was not stained, melanin was orange and other structures were pink. Comparing the two staining methods, we concluded that Fontana’s silver nitrate method takes a long time; in contrast, the Schmorl method showed two different types of results depending on whether the nucleus was stained, and it takes less time than Fontana staining, so we here consider the Schmorl method more suitable for special staining of melanin than Fontana’ s silver nitrate method.

KEY WORDS: Melanin; Fontana's Silver Nitrate Method; Schmorl Method.

SHATAER, M.; SHATAER, S.; LIBIN, L.; TIAN, L. & SHENGBIN, B. Histological comparison of two special methods of staining melanin in human skin. Int. J. Morphol., 38(6):1535-1538, 2020.