Cresyl violet: a red fluorescent Nissl stain.

Cresyl violet is widely used by neurobiologists to visualize Nissl substance in bright-field microscopy. Here we describe a method for using this dye as a red fluorescent Nissl stain. Unlike the bright-field staining technique, fluorescent cresyl is compatible with other fluorescent dyes and tracers, such as fluorescein, Fluoro-Gold and Fast Blue. The procedure requires only minor modifications of routine bright-field cresyl staining, the most significant being dilution of the stain. Thus, fluorescent red cresyl violet is simple to implement and may be of general use in fluorescence microscopy.