Electron microscopic study of paired helical filaments and cerebral amyloid using a novel en bloc silver staining method

Summary

A one step en bloc silver staining method which was originally established to study nucleolar organizer regions has been applied for the demonstration of both paired helical filaments (PHF) and extracellular cerebral amyloids in semi-thin sections and at the electron microscopic level. The three forms of PHF can be visualized: (1) neurofibrillary tangles are shown in all stages from first appearance in form of intracellular patches of PHF to severely degenerated shadow-like “ghost” tangles; (2) neuropil threads are distinctly stained in great numbers; and (3) PHF are easily detected as neuritic components in amyloid plaques. All forms of fibrillar extracellular amyloid structures, i.e. “diffuse”, “classical” and “burnt out” plaques, are well demonstrated; congophilic angiopathy reveals amyloid preferentially in arteries and arterioles of the leptomeninges and cortex ranging from small circumscribed patches to large circumferential amounts with occasional plaque-like condensations or broad loose accumulations of amyloid; perivascular cuffs and laminar subpial deposits of amyloid are stained as well. At the electron microscopic level all lesions are clearly visible in non uranyl/lead-stained specimens, characterized by varying numbers of silver grains on a pale background. The detailed demonstration of structures in archival material, which had been stored in paraffin and re-embedded for electron microscopy, is due to the demonstration of argyrophilic structures by the protective colloidal developer of gelatin and formic acid and to the proteolytic resistance of insoluble PHF and extracellular amyloids in plaques and congophilic angiopathy.