Histological Staining
Clinically, amyloid diseases are typically identified by a change in the fluorescence intensity of planar aromatic dyes such as thioflavin T or congo red. Congo red positivity remains the gold standard for diagnosis of amyloidosis. This is generally attributed to the environmental change, as these dyes intercalate between beta-strands. Congophilic amyloid plaques generally cause apple-green birefringence when viewed through crossed polarimetric filters. To avoid nonspecific staining, other histology stains, such as the hematoxylin and eosin stain, are used to quench the dyes' activity in other places such as the nucleus where the dye might bind. Modern antibody technology and immunohistochemistry has made specific staining easier, but often this can cause trouble because epitopes can be concealed in the amyloid fold; an amyloid protein structure is generally a different conformation from that which the antibody recognizes.
Read more about this topic: Amyloid