Chestnut and the Motic Panthera U

While looking through my new stock of prepared slides, I came across this specimen, a section of a petiole of the Castanea sativa. The Castanea sativa or European chestnut is widespread in Europe and Asia, meanwhile also in other temperate zones. The chestnuts are consumed since ancient times by people. The tree can become very old.

It was not necessary to take multiple photos of the object and stack it. The coupe was cut perfectly flat. The section is stained according to the Wacker 3A procedure (Acridine red -Acriflavin - Astra blue).

Triple Stain Wacker 3A

The Wacker 3A staining method (developed by Robin Wacker) is one of the methods which can be used to distinguish cell differences in plants. The images of the cross section of a Rubus idaeus (raspberry) sprout are showing a nice example:

The method is based on the following solutions: 

• Astra blue (2% in distilled water)
• Acriflavin (1% in distilled water) 
• Acridine red (1% in 50% ethanol).  

*All solutions slightly acidified with 2ml acetic acid per 100ml solution.

Skin Cells

The skin cover the entire body and is our largest organ. It functions to protect the internal organs from mechanical, thermal, and chemical exposure as well as prevent evaporation of body liquids and of course also act as a barrier for pathogens. The outermost layer of the skin is called the epidermis. This layer varies in thickness depending on the location, but in general it is about 0.2 mm - 0.5 mm, or 200-500 microns thick. The epidermis can be subdivided into five (actually six) individual layers all made up mostly of skin cells, called keratinocytes. In fact 90-95% of the cells in the epidermis are keratinocytes.