Good idea John.
You could also use IHC markers, even double staining, say CD31 for
endothelial cells and desmin for smooth muscle cells.
Patsy Ruegg

"J. A. Kiernan" wrote:

> On Wed, 28 Nov 2001, Judy Trogadis wrote:
>
> > We are interested in differentiating between arteries and
> >veins in the adult rat pulmonary vasculature. Are there specific
> > markers or antibodies we could use?
>
> Why not use an ordinary connective tissue stain
> such as van Gieson's. Arteries have thicker walls,
> mostly muscle (yellow) and veins have thinner
> walls with relatively less muscle and more
> adventitial collagen (red).
>
> > A fluorescent marker is required for the confocal
> > technique.
>
> It would be, but with van Gieson you could do
> the job with an ordinary microscope - much
> cheaper and easier to use! For what it's worth
> the acid fuchsine component of van Gieson is
> fluorescent. The picric acid suppresses
> autofluorescence, and so does the Weigert's
> iron haematoxylin that's used to stain nuclei.
>
> ----------------------------------------
> John A. Kiernan
> Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology
> The University of Western Ontario
> London,  Canada   N6A 5C1
>    kiernan@uwo.ca
>    http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan