CYTOCHEMISTRY IN LEPROSY BACILLUS

Abstract

In this paper, nucleic acid, gram substances and volutin of the leprosy bacillus were stained with the Feulgen reaction, Newton's gentian violet, its modified method, Brachet's methyl green-pyronin method, thionin method, gram staining and our diluted gentian violet method, and the mechanism of these staining methods were discussed.
Leprosy bacilli are stainable with the Yoshida's staining for mitochondria, and with Baker's phospholipid method to the same degree with Ziehl-Neelsen's staining. From these and other histochemical findings, the acid-fastness of leprosy bacillus is attributed to phospholipid or unsaturated lipid in the bacilli. And it is imaginable that the center of metabolism of the leprosy bacillus is in the nucleus.