Gram stain

Vinitha Panicker; Prateek Nayak; Radhika Krishna; Nandhetha Sreenivaasan; Jacob Thomas; Velayudhan Sreedevan; Gopikrishnan Anjaneyan; Soumya Jagadeesan; Sajini Lekshmi

doi:10.25259/JSSTD_22_2022

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Net Educational Video for Residents

5 (

); 60-61

doi:

10.25259/JSSTD_22_2022

Gram stain

Vinitha Panicker¹, Prateek Nayak¹, Radhika Krishna¹, Nandhetha Sreenivaasan¹, Jacob Thomas¹, Velayudhan Sreedevan¹, Gopikrishnan Anjaneyan¹, Soumya Jagadeesan¹, Sajini Lekshmi¹

1Department of Dermatology, Venereology, and Leprosy, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala, India

*Corresponding author: Prateek Nayak, Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprosy, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala, India. nayakprateek@rocketmail.com

Received: 2022-04-26, Accepted: 2022-05-12, Epub ahead of print: 2022-06-30, Published: 2023-04-14

Licence

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, transform, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

How to cite this article: Panicker V, Nayak P, Krishna R, Sreenivaasan N, Thomas J, Sreedevan V, et al. Gram stain. J Skin Sex Transm Dis 2023;5:60-1.

Abstract

Gram staining is a differential staining technique performed when a bacterial infection is suspected. The technique classifies bacteria into two broad groups: Gram negative and gram positive bacteria. In this net educational video, we have demonstrated the method of Gram staining.

Keywords

Gram stain

Bacterial infection

Differential staining

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INTRODUCTION

Gram staining [Video 1] is a widely used staining technique in the field of dermatology and is named after the Danish bacteriologist Hans Christian Gram.^[1]

Video 1:

Video 1:Gram staining technique. Video available online at: https://doi.org/10.25259/JSSTD_22_2022

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INDICATION

Clinical suspicion of bacterial infection.

PROCEDURE

Preparation of the smear

An inoculation loop is used to transfer a drop of suspended culture to the microscope slide, smeared as a thin film, and either air-dried or over a gentle flame.

Gram staining

Primary stain – Crystal violet/methylene blue – wash after 60 seconds.
Mordant – Gram’s iodine – wash after 60 seconds.
Decolorizer – Acetone/acetone-ethanol mixture – wash in 5 seconds.^[1,2]
Counterstain – Carbol fuchsin/safranin – wash after 30 seconds.

INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS

Initial slide examination under low-power magnification to evaluate the smear distribution and then under oil immersion objective^[1,2]
Gram-positive organisms are either purple or blue, while gram-negative organisms are either pink or red
Bacilli are rod shaped, while cocci are spherical

CONCLUSION

Gram stain differentiates bacteria based on the differential staining properties of bacterial cell wall. Bacteria with thick peptidoglycan layer stains blue to purple and are treated as gram positive, while bacteria with thin peptidoglycan layer stains red to pink and are treated as gram negative.^[2]

Acknowledgment

We are grateful to Dr. Fairoz CP (Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology) and Dr. Mohammed Althaf V (Junior Resident, Department of Dermatology), Government Medical College, Kozhikode, for the images of Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms, respectively. Background music used in the video is under a creative commons license. (Music by Whitesand - Eternity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5c83Uixoj8, https://www.youtube.com/c/WhitesandComposer/).

Declaration of patient consent

Not required as there are no patients in this article.

Conflicts of interest

Dr. Vinitha Panicker and Dr. Soumya Jagadeesan are on the editorial board of the Journal.

Video available online at:

https://doi.org/10.25259/JSSTD_22_2022

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

References

Tripathi N, Sapra A. Gram Staining Treasure Island, FL: StatPearls Publishing; 2021.
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Smith AC, Hussey MA. Gram Stain Protocols. 2005. Available from: https://asm.org/Protocols/Gram-Stain-Protocols [Last accessed on 2022 May 12]
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