The osteocyte has been the subject of recent research; however the in situ evaluation of its morphology, activity and connection characteristics is difficult and has been performed solely through advanced techniques. Due to the importance of this type of cell in the maintenance of the bone matrix, this study proposes a technique of silver staining as an alternative for the study of the osteocyte and its connections in demineralized and paraffined bone tissue. Cuts of 4µm from the femur of female rats were de-mineralized, deparaffined in xylol and hydrated in decreasing concentrations of ETOH and miliQ water. For the impregnation, solutions of silver nitrate at 50% and formic acid at 1% with 2% microbiological gel were used and incubated at 40ºC. This technique allows the easy visualizing of the osteocytes lacunae edges and its connections, offering a simple and efficient alternative to the study of this type of cellular morphology, so far not proposed with this purpose.
Osteocyte; Histochemistry; Connections; Bone
