Metachromasia in the Living Cell.

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Abstract
Intracellular granular metachromasia, appearing in a sequence of pink and purple, is a general phenomenon in living cells in tissue culture, while diffuse orthochromasia is a criterion of cell death. Mast cells cannot thus be identified by supravital metachromasia. In a hypotonic medium (0.04 M) metachromasia cannot be produced. This is opposite to the effect of salting-out the dye by neutral salts, and suggests that dye concentration due to an active process in the living cell is connected with vital metachromasia. While in nonliving cells metachromasia can be produced by increasing the dye concentration, and changes in pH lead to loss of metachromasia on the acid side and increased metachromasia on the alkaline side, dye concentration, and pH compatible with cell life have no direct effect on metachromasia in living cells. The regular shift from pink to purple in the course of vital staining with toluidine blue, and the shift from purple to blue at cell death, show that dye condensation effected by an active process in the cell, and possibly more complicated factors are involved in vital metachromasia.

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