Comprehensive Report: PAS Stain in Histopathology - Diagnosis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the Periodic Acid-Schiff (PAS) stain, a crucial method in histopathology used to detect polysaccharides in tissues. It begins with an introduction to the stain, explaining its purpose and the types of polysaccharides it identifies, including mucins, glycoproteins, and glycogen. The report then delves into the history of the stain, highlighting key scientists and their contributions to its development and application. It describes the chemical composition of the PAS stain, detailing the reagents involved, such as Lillie’s Cold Schiff reagent and periodic acid. The report extensively covers the diagnostic uses of the PAS stain, illustrating its role in identifying various diseases, including glycogen storage disorders, adenocarcinomas, Paget's disease, fungal infections, and erythroleukemia. It explains the target tissue components that the stain reacts with, such as vicinal diols in polysaccharides, and how these reactions lead to the formation of a magenta color. The report also provides examples of staining patterns in different conditions, such as gastric ring cell carcinoma and esophageal candidiasis. Finally, it concludes by emphasizing the importance of the PAS stain in clinical laboratory methods for detecting polysaccharide-related diseases and tumors. References to supporting research are included.

PAS Stain
Histopathology
4/17/20
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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
History of the stain.....................................................................................................................2
Chemical Composition...............................................................................................................2
Uses of Diagnosis.......................................................................................................................2
Target tissue components in tissues...........................................................................................3
Staining Patterns.........................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
Periodic acid Schiff abbreviated as PAS is a staining method used to detect the
presence of the polysaccharides in the tissues of the body (Wang et al., 2017). This report
discusses about the history related to the establishments of the reaction using PAS and the
chemical composition included in the reagents. It also gives insights about the application and
use of the stain with the help of some figures.
History of the stain
The polysaccharide that can be recognized using this stain includes mucins,
glycoproteins, and glycogen. It is also used in the staining of cellulose content. It was
introduced by the scientist McManus in the year 1946. He demonstrated the use of Schiff
reagent on the mucins and then treating it with the periodic acid and published it in Nature
journal. Later, in 1947 Marchese, used this staining method to detect glycogen and in the
same year, Gersh and Carchpole demonstrated the reaction. In the year 1948, scientist
Hotchkiss also published the process of reaction in Nature journal. It the most widely used
method of staining in the histochemical yet not well recognized (Peña-Romero et al., 2017).
Chemical Composition
PAS stain is comprised of the reagent which is termed as Lillie’s Cold Schiff reagent,
which is composed of basic fuchsin also called pararosaniline, Na metabisulfite hydrochloric
acid, and distilled water. Moreover, periodic acid diluted with distilled water is also used in
the staining process (Wang et al., 2017).
Uses of Diagnosis
It is used to detect the presence of carbohydrates especially the polysaccharides in the
tissues including connective, basal lamina and mucosal tissues. The presence of glycogen is
detected by using diatese to digest the glycogen and then it is compared with the original
undigested section. It is used is the diagnosis of several its use related diseases such as
glycogen storage disorder, adenocarcinomas in which neutral mucin is released. Moreover, it
detects the Paget diseases which affect the breasts in females, alveolar and Ewing sarcoma
disease. Besides that, it also helps in diagnosing the fungal infections and erythroleukemia
which affects the immature RBC. Lung biopsies are performed using the stain which is
suitable in diagnosing carcinomas (Zaaroura et al., 2019).

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Target tissue components in tissues
PAS stain is a reaction in which the carbon-carbon bond among polysaccharides is
oxidized due to periodic acid which results in the formation of aldehyde which further reacts
to fuchsin acid and gives a magenta color. Vicinal diols present in the polysaccharide sugars
such as mucin, glycogen, glycolipids, and glycoproteins get oxidized and breakage in bonds
causing the formation of aldehydes. It helps in the detection and diagnosis of diseases in the
tissues of the organs such as kidney, liver, lungs, pancreases, small intestine, prostate, testis,
and parotid gland (Peña-Romero et al., 2017).
Staining Patterns
Gastric ring cell carcinoma (Genta et al., 2018)
Esophageal candidiasis (Matos‐Casano et al., 2019)

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Glycogen storage disease in the liver (Hui et al., 2017)
Conclusion
Hence, PAS stain is quite useful in clinical laboratory methods in detection of the
polysaccharide related diseases such as fungal infections and several tumor specifically
which has chemical makeup constituting glycogen, glycoprotein, glycolipids, and mucins.

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References
Genta, R. M., Turner, K., & Lash, R. H. (2018). Sa1254 Influence of an Upfront Alcian-Blue
Periodic Acid Schiff Stain on the Histopathologic Diagnosis of selected Upper
Gastrointestinal Disorders. Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 87(6), 183-184
Hui, H., Ma, W., Cui, J., Gong, M., Wang, Y., & He, Y. (2017). Periodic acid-Schiff staining
method for function detection of liver cells. Molecular medicine reports, 16(6), 8062-
8068.
Matos‐Casano, H. A., & Martinez‐Pitre, P. (2019). Esophageal candidiasis and its
diagnosis. Clinical Case Reports.
Peña-Romero, A. G., Toussaint-Caire, S., & Domínguez-Cherit, J. (2017). Periodic Acid-
Schiff Stain in Circumscribed Hypokeratosis. The American Journal of
Dermatopathology, 39(9), 709-711.
Wang, M. Z., Guo, R., & Lehman, J. S. (2017). Correlation between histopathologic features
and likelihood of identifying superficial dermatophytosis with periodic acid Schiff‐
diastase staining: a cohort study. Journal of cutaneous pathology, 44(2), 152-157.
Zaaroura, H., & Bergman, R. (2019). How useful is periodic acid‐Schiff stain to detect fungi
in biopsies from dermatoses of the palms and soles. Journal of cutaneous
pathology, 46(6), 418-420.