Von Kossa stain

The von Kossa histological stain is used to quantify mineralization in cell culture and histological sections. It is named after the Hungarian physician Julius von Kóssa [hu] (a.k.a. Gyula Magyary-Kossa, 1865–1944), who developed it.^[1]

Method

The von Kossa stain is a staining method to illustrates mineralization such as calcium and potassium in tissues.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} It is a precipitation reaction in which silver ions react with phosphate in the presence of acidic material.^[7] Photochemical degradation of silver phosphate to silver happens under light illumination.

Additional methods need to be employed to confirm the presence of calcium, such as Alizarin Red S.^{[citation needed]}