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Mast cells
edit"Mast cell granules are metachromatic because of the high content of acidic radicals in the heparin glycsaminoglycan" - Basic Histology, Junqueira & Caneiro
This explains the reason for metachromasia, but we neeed another reference which does not infringe on copyright. Madskile 19:09, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
Dispute tag
editI tagged this because I don't think the current version of the article gives an accurate description of metachromasia. I think this is probably because the article is based on some direct citations of older journal articles that weren't well-understood by the previous author who wrote this section, rather than basing it on a more general explanation found in a general histology, staining, or microtechnique textbook. I'll try to add something soon based on this kind of source, and give the previous sources a look to see if there's anything salvageable.
In brief - metachromasia takes place when a tissue, based on its acidophilic or basophilic properties, provides enough binding sites for the molecules of a metachromatic dye that adjacent molecules polymerize, and change color in the process of polymerization. Metachromasia is a pH dependent reaction, and the same tissue will stain quite differently depending on the overall pH of the solution the tissue and dye is in. Peter G Werner (talk) 04:31, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
I believe I met your needs, and expanded the entry a little, adding references. I don't think the previous author was wrong, just lacking in mechanistic understanding, perhaps. [Collagenetix 15 October 2015] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Collagenetix (talk • contribs) 16:15, 15 October 2015 (UTC)