A brief history of the Feulgen reaction

• DOI: 10.1007/s00418-024-02279-9
• Publication Date: 2024-04-12T17:01:41Z
• Authors: Marco Biggiogera; Margherita Cavallo; Claudio Casali
• Keywords: Feulgen stain; Biomedicine; Stain

Abstract One hundred years ago, Robert Feulgen published a landmark paper in which he described the first method to stain DNA cells and tissues. Although century has passed since discovery by Rossenbeck, chemical reaction still exerts an important influence current histochemical studies. Its contribution diverse fields, spanning from biomedicine plant biology, paved way for most significant studies that constitute our knowledge. The possibility specifically explore cell nuclei while quantifying its content makes it contemporary timeless method. Indeed, many histocytochemical following 1924 have led deep understanding of genome organization general as well several specific mechanisms (e.g. duplication or tumour pathology) that, nowadays, some fundamental pillars biological investigations. In this review, we discuss chemistry application both light electron microscopy.