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Giemsa staining

Giemsa staining is used for peripheral blood smears to facilitate the detection of different blood cells and blood pathogens, such as the causative agent of Malaria. It stains red blood cells in red/pink and platelets in light pink. The leukocyte nuclear chromatin appears in magenta (Figure 1).

Giemsa specifically binds to phosphate groups of DNA, in particular to regions of the DNA that are rich in adenine-thymine bonding.

This image is a photomicrograph of a peripheral blood smear, stained Giemsa, which is standard for hematology. The image consisted of Erythrocytes or red blood cells, they are the most numerous cells. They appear as circular, pink-to-salmon-colored, biconcave discs without nucleus. There is also Leukocytes or White Blood Cells, which is a single, large, dark-staining nucleated cell is visible near the center-right of the image. The last component of the image are Platelets or Thrombocytes, which are small, anucleated, light purple staining cellular fragments. They are scattered between the larger red and white blood cells.

Figure 1: Micrograph of a Giemsa stained blood smear.

Referred from:

Article
Malaria