Franz Nissl#Named histology concepts

Nissl staining, Nissl designated by Franz, histological staining technique is used in particular for the preparation of nerve tissue. These histological sections with a dye such as cresyl violet, toluidine blue or thionine be moved. These dyes bind to basophil compounds such as RNA and DNA, and therefore stain the nucleoli and ribosomes blue or purple.

Since the cell organelles within the nervous tissue only in nerve cell bodies, but not in the projections ( axons, dendrites ) are stained, only the cell body. These occur at the dye on the so-called " Nissl bodies ", which corresponds to the rough endoplasmic reticulum, to which are attached many ribosomes.