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Advanced Healthcare Materials
Article . 2025 . Peer-reviewed
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PubMed Central
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Apollo
Article . 2025
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Systematic Comparison of Commercial Uranyl‐Alternative Stains for Negative‐ and Positive‐Staining Transmission Electron Microscopy of Organic Specimens

Authors: Vera M. Kissling; Stephanie Eitner; Davide Bottone; Gea Cereghetti; Peter Wick;

Systematic Comparison of Commercial Uranyl‐Alternative Stains for Negative‐ and Positive‐Staining Transmission Electron Microscopy of Organic Specimens

Abstract

AbstractNegative‐ and positive‐staining transmission electron microscopy (ns/psTEM) is a cornerstone of research and diagnostics, enabling nanometer‐resolution analysis of organic specimens from nanoparticles to cells without requiring costly cryo‐equipment. For nearly 70 years, uranyl salts like uranyl acetate (UA) have been the gold‐standard ns/psTEM‐stains. However, mounting safety concerns due to their high toxicity and radioactivity have led to stricter regulations and expensive licensing requirements. Consequently, there is an urgent global demand for safer, more sustainable stains that deliver uranyl‐comparable, high‐quality ns/psTEM. Here, the commercially available stain‐alternatives UranyLess, UAR, UA‐Zero, PTA, STAIN 77, Nano‐W, NanoVan, and lead citrate are systematically assessed against UA. The stains are evaluated regarding their contrast, resolution, stain‐distribution, and ease‐of‐use in ns/psTEM across a diverse sample set, including polymethylmethacrylate‐nanoplastics, phosphatidylcholine‐liposomes, Influenza‐A viruses, globular ferritin, fibrillar pyruvate kinase amyloids, and human lung‐carcinoma cell‐sections. It is shown that for this variety of samples, a ready‐to‐use uranyl‐alternative is commercially available with comparable or even superior ns/psTEM‐performance to UA using an efficient staining‐protocol. Furthermore, the GUIDE4U tool is developed for the fast identification of the appropriate uranyl‐replacements for each sample of interest, saving ns/psTEM‐users time and costs while ensuring excellent staining results for ultrastructural analysis, thereby further catalyzing the use of safer stains.

Country
United Kingdom
Keywords

Microscopy, Electron, Transmission, Staining and Labeling, Influenza A virus, organic nanoparticles, uranyl‐replacement stains, Organometallic Compounds, ultrastructure imaging, Humans, biological samples, Coloring Agents, negative‐ and positive‐staining transmission electron microscopy, Research Article

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    This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    3
    popularity
    This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
    Top 10%
    influence
    This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    Average
    impulse
    This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
    Average
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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
3
Top 10%
Average
Average
Green
hybrid