Light Microscopic Investigation of Nasal Mast Cells of Rat Using Histological Methods

In this light microscopic study, morphology of nasal mast cells was investigated in rats using alcian blue- safranin 0 and toluidin blue staining methods. The investigation was performed on 10 mak and female albino rats which were obtained from the Ex-perimental Animal Laboratory of the Faculty of Me-dicine, Selçuk University. Rats were anestheti zed by ether and regio respiratoria nasi of rats were fron-tally excised. Tissues were fixed in Carnoy solution for three days at room temperature, dehydrated with absolute alcohol and embedded in paraffin. Five micrometer sections were cut from the paraffin blocks using rotary microtome and stained with al-cian blue-safranin 0 and toluidin blue solutions. In conclusion, this study revealed that there are two distinct mast cell population in the rat nose: mucosal most cells and connective tissue most cells. Mucosal mast cells stained blue with ağdan blue-safranin 0 solution while connective tissue mast cells stanied red and reddish- blue. Both mast cell popu-lations stained dark violet by toluidin blue solution.