What type of microscope is used for Mycobacterium tuberculosis?
Because of the high incidence of death due to tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis was one of the first bacterial species to be examined using the technique of electron microscopy (EM) [1],[2].
How does tuberculosis stain?
The staining technique is used for the diagnosis of TB infection. A sample of sputum (the mucus coughed up from the lower airways) is stained with Ziehl-Neelsen stain. If acid-fast bacteria are discovered, this is highly likely to be Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
What color does tuberculosis stain?
Acid alcohol has the ability to completely decolorize all non-acid-fast organisms, thus only leaving behind red-colored acid-fast organisms, like M. tuberculosis. The slides are then stained a second time with methylene blue that serves as a counterstain.
What is the shape of Mycobacterium tuberculosis?
Mycobacteria are small rod-shaped bacilli that can cause a variety of diseases in humans.
How does staining help in performing microscopy?
Cell staining is a technique that can be used to better visualize cells and cell components under a microscope. By using different stains, one can preferentially stain certain cell components, such as a nucleus or a cell wall, or the entire cell.
What is the Gram stain of tuberculosis?
tuberculosis belongs to the high G+C Gram-positive bacteria that form a monophyletic group with the low G+C Gram-positive bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis. Some analyses indicate no particular relationship between these two groups.
Why does Gram stain not work on Mycobacterium tuberculosis?
First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, M. tuberculosis has an unusual, waxy coating on its cell surface primarily due to the presence of mycolic acid. This coating makes the cells impervious to Gram staining, and as a result, M. tuberculosis can appear weakly Gram-positive.
Why is acid-fast stain used for tuberculosis?
Sputum, or phlegm, is often used to test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, to find out if a patient has TB. This bacterium is completely acid-fast, which means the entire cell holds onto the dye. A positive test result from the acid-fast stain confirms the patient has TB.
Why is Mycobacterium tuberculosis studied with electron microscopy (EM)?
Because of the high incidence of death due to tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis was one of the first bacterial species to be examined using the technique of electron microscopy (EM) [ 1 ], [ 2 ]. Most of these early EM studies produced images of smooth bacilli with low resolution by today’s standards.
What is the best way to measure stain concentration with TEM?
TEM imaging is suitable for finding the stain concentration in any other mode of electron microscope imaging too, requiring only the measurement of the thickness of the slice and the elastic scattering cross sections for the heavy atoms used for staining, mostly osmium, lead, and uranium.
How is tuberculosis (TB) diagnosed in the laboratory?
Methods used for the laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis are continually evolving in order to achieve more rapid, less expensive, and accurate results. Acid-fast staining and culture for mycobacteria remain at the core of any diagnostic algorithm.
Is microscopy useful for tuberculosis case detection?
For tuberculosis case detection, microscopy continues to be indispensible, given its low cost, rapidity, simplicity of procedure and high specificity.