In Gordon and Sweets staining, what color is reticulin?

• A. Black/Grey
• B. Pink
• C. Yellow
• D. Red

Answer: (A)

Reticulin is a delicate network of type III collagen, and Gordon and Sweets staining uses a silver impregnation technique that deposits metallic silver onto these fibers. This causes the reticulin framework to appear dark, typically black or dark grey, while the surrounding tissue takes on a pale background. This high contrast makes the reticular fiber network easy to see in tissues like liver, spleen, lymph nodes, and bone marrow. Pink or red would come from counterstains of cytoplasm or other structures in different stains, not from reticulin in this method, and yellow would be just background coloration, not the color of the fibers themselves. So the reticulin color produced by this stain is black/grey.