Nancy Phan

Physiology
Period 4
LAB: Introduction to Microscopy
1. Problem - What stains allow you best observe the most detail of a cheek epithelial cell?
2. Research - Cells and cell organelles can appear clear or transparent under the microscope.
Therefore, biologists have developed stains that help them see the cells and their organelles by
adding color to their transparent parts because certain stains color certain parts of a cell.
Scientists choose specific stains when they want to look at a particular part of a cell. Iodine is a
stain usually used to observe plant cells because it makes the nuclei appear clearer. Methylene
blue is usually used to observe animal cells because it also makes the nuclei and the outlines
much more visible.
http://legacy.mos.org/sln/sem/staining.html
http://regentsprep.org/Regents/biology/2011%20Web%20Pages/Laboratory%20SkillsSkills.htm
3. Predictions - Based on my research, I predict that methylene blue will be the stain that will
allow me to best observe the details of a cheek cell because it is commonly used to view animal
cells.
4. Methods - Take a microscope slide and place a drop of stain on the slide. Then, scrape the
inside of your cheek with a toothpick. Mix the scrapings on the toothpick into the stain and place
a coverslip on top of it. Examine the substances on the microscope slide using the scanning lens
(red). Continue examining the substances under the low-power lens (yellow) and the high-power
lens (blue). Take a picture or draw what is seen through the eyepiece. Repeat the steps above
using different stains.
5. Analysis
1. When switching from the scanning lens to the low-power lens to the high-power, the
view looks zoomed in and harder to focus on. The high-power lens made everything looked
too bright, which caused it to be too hard to observe the cells with the stains.

2.The two stains I used were the two basic stains, methylene blue and I2-KI. The methylene

blue stained microscope slide came out to look purple and more of the cheeks cells were
most visible under the low-power lens. The I2-KI stained microscope slide came out to look
reddish brown and wasn't as easy to focus on, but was most visible under the high-power
lens. I believe that the methylene blue stain gave the best results because the cell details were
best observed using that stain.
6. Conclusion - In this lab, I was asked which stains would best allow me to view the details of a
cheek epithelial cell. Based on some research, I predicted that methylene blue would be the best
stain to use in observing cheek cells because it is commonly used for observing animal cells.
Methylene blue has the ability to makes the outlines of the organelles much more visible.
Without the stain, the cells and its organelles would not be as visible.
After following the lab procedure, I recorded my observations and was able to see the difference
between the I2-KI stained microscope slide and the methylene blue microscope slide. As
predicted, the methylene blue stain worked the best in making the cheek cells more visible
compared to the I2-KI stain.