Which stain is used for Corynebacterium diphtheriae?

To accurately identify C. diphtheriae, a Gram stain is performed to show Gram-positive, highly pleomorphic organisms with no particular arrangement. Special stains like Albert’s stain and Ponder’s stain are used to demonstrate the metachromatic granules formed in the polar regions.

What is the principle of Albert stain?

The storage granules in this bacterium is called metachromatic granules because it exhibits the property of metachromasia, wherein the granules appear in a colour other than the colour used for staining. When stained with polychrome methylene blue, the granules appear violet while the rest of the bacillus appears blue.

How do you stain Corynebacterium diphtheriae?

Albert’s method, of staining diphtheria cultures consists of staining a fixed smear for one minute (some laboratories stain for five minutes) with a solution containing toluidine blue and malachite (or methyl) green, washing with water, and applying Albert’s iodine for one minute.

What Colour are the metachromatic granules stained with Albert’s method?

Albert’s Metachromatic Stain is used for observing metachromatic granules. Albert’s Metachromatic Stain demonstrates the presence of metachromatic granules found in Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The granules stain purple-black against the light green counterstained cytoplasm.

Where is Corynebacterium found in the body?

They are ubiquitous and can be found on the skin and in the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. The primary pathogen in this group is Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the etiologic agent of diphtheria.

Which mordant is used in Albert stain?

Albert’s iodine
Albert’s iodine acts as a mordant. e slide is then washed with water and blotted to dry. A drop of cedar wood oil or liquid paran is placed on the smear. immersion objective using the plane mirror.

What color is Albert stain?

When stained with Albert’s stain, the bacillus stains green whereas the granules stain bluish black. There are two reagents that are used in the staining process: Albert’s A solution and Albert’s B solution. Albert’s A solution consists of Toluidine blue, malachite green, glacial acetic acid, and ethyl alcohol.

What kills Corynebacterium?

The goal is both to kill the organism and to terminate toxin production. Many antibiotics are effective, including penicillin, erythromycin, clindamycin, rifampin, and tetracycline; erythromycin or penicillin is the treatment of choice and is usually given for 14 days.

What is the importance of Albert staining?

Introduction. Albert’s staining technique is a type of special staining technique since it is used to demonstrate a special structure in bacteria. It is chiefly used to demonstrate metachromatic granules found in Corynebacterium diphtheriae. This bacterium is responsible for the disease diphtheria.

Is Corynebacterium contagious?

Diphtheria is a highly contagious and potentially life-threatening bacterial disease caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae. There are two types of diphtheria: respiratory and cutaneous. Respiratory diphtheria involves the nose, throat and tonsils, and cutaneous diphtheria involves the skin.

How does the Albert stain work for bacteria?

Albert stain only acts as a confirmatory stain for the bacteria. Being a differential stain, it can only stain volutin granules, hence bacteria without these granules can not be stained nor identified with this technique. To stain and observe metachromatic granules from a Corynebacterium diphtheriae culture.

What does Corynebacterium diphtheriae look like in Albert stain?

If Corynebacterium diphtheriae is present in the sample it appears green colored rod-shaped bacteria arranged at an angle to each other, resembling English letter ‘L’, ‘V’, or Chinese letter pattern along with bluish-black metachromatic granules at the poles.

What kind of stain do you use on Corynebacterium?

Albert’s stain is a meta chromatic dye and useful to stain Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Principe. It stains the volutin or meta chromatic granules of Corynebacterium species. Volutin granules appear as bluish black around bodies at the end of bacilli and the bacilli appear appear green.

Why is the Albert stain called a metachromatic stain?

Albert stain is a type of differential stain used for staining the volutin granules also known as Metachromatic granules or food granules found in Corynebacterium diphtheriae. It is named as metachromatic because of its property of changing colour i.e when stained with blue stain they appear red in colour.