Metachromasia index

The program characterizes metachromasia by calculating metachromasia indices.

Metachromasia is a peculiar color change certain dyes display when they form oligomers. Such a phenomenon happens when connective tissue containing a regular array of negative charges is stained with a basic dye. Therefore, metachromasia is commonly used for characterizing the extracellular matrix of connective tissue.

Metachromasia is often measured on methylene blue- or toluidine blue-stained specimens, and it is manifested in the appearance of purple color. Quantification of metachromasia is the measurement of how close the color of a stained histological section is to the purple color of the positive control.

More detailed description is available on the following web page: http://peternagyweb.hu/Metachromasia.html