Gram Staining: Light Microscopy

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Gram staining is a procedure which uses light microscopy. It is a method of differentiating gram negative bacterial cells and gram positive bacterial cells. The gram staining procedure was designed by Christian Gram in 1884. Gram negative bacterial cells contain a thin peptidoglycan wall in addition to the outer cell membrane. Gram positive bacterial cells do not have a peptidoglycan cell wall. Gram negative bacterial cells decolorize during the gram staining procedure and retain the red color of the counterstain. This is because of the peptidoglycan cell wall. Gram positive cells do not decolorize and ultimately retain the purple color of the dye. Anaerobic gram negative bacilli cause infections in many parts of the body. The symptoms include necrosis and the accumulation of pus which causes swelling. These infections can be treated fairly easily through surgical procedures and by taking. Studies of these infections have been carried out and more investigations and studies will continue to be …show more content…
This staining is a light microscopy in which the procedure of gram staining distinguishes between gram positive and gram negative bacterial cell groups by a process of coloring the tissues red or violet using an iodide solution. (Bartholomew and Finkelstein 1954)
During the early days, it was very difficult to detect the presence of bacterial cells in tissues. This is because the methods of staining used back then actually colored the bacterial cells and the tissue equally. It was Christian Gram who developed the method of gram staining we now use. He first attempted to develop a procedure where he could differentially stain a certain bacteria called a schizomycete from tissue cells. He began this investigation by experimenting with pneumococci from the lungs of victims of pneumonia in animal lungs. (Bartholomew and Mittwer
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