Gram Staining

A differential staining technique was introduced by Hans Christian Gram in 1884, which is now known as Gram Stain technique. The technique comprises of a primary stain (typically crystal violet), a mordant (Gram’s Iodine), a decoloriser (ethyl alcohol) and a counterstain (dil. carbol fuschin). This technique exploits fundamental physiological differences between gram positive bacteria and gram negative bacteria. Once stained by primary stained and fixed by a mordant Gram positive bacteria resists decolorisation by alcohol and remain violet at the end of staining. Gram negative bacteria gets decolourised and must be stained by a counterstain and appear pink in colour at the end of staining. Although the original method devised by Christian Gram comprised of Gentian violet, Lugol’s Iodine, absolute alcohol and Bismarck brown, there are various modifications of Gram stain in practice. These modifications include Jensen’s modification, Kopeloff & Beerman’s modification, Weigert’s modification and Preston & Morrell’s modification.

The procedure adopted in our institution is as follows:
The smear is covered with few drops of crystal violet solution and allowed to act for one minute. The slide is then washed with gentle stream of running tap water. The smear is then covered with few drops of Gram’s Iodine and allowed to act for a minute and then washed in tap water. The smear is then decolourised by alcohol by until no more violet colour comes off the slide. This process is completed within 30 seconds to prevent overdecolourisation. The slide is washed in water and counterstained using dilute carbol fuchsin for 30 seconds. The slide is then washed in water and dried with blotting paper and observed under oil immersion objective.

For more information and commonly asked questions, visit www.microrao.com/staining.htm

Photo of Gram stained smear showing gram positive cocci and gram negative bacilli