basophilic

Staining readily with basic dyes.

• b. bone matrix — vitamin D poisoning causes the appearance of intensely basophilic bone matrix of a distincitive pattern.
• b. cell — see basophil cell.
• b. enterocolitis — one of the several types of enterocolitis causing chronic diarrhea in horses characterized by fibrinous and ulcerative typhlocolitis and basophilic infiltrates in the regional mucosa and submucosa.
• b. leukemia — see leukemia.
• b. rubricyte — a stage in cellular maturation of erythrocytes, between the prorubricyte and polychromatophilic rubricyte. Characterized by a narrow rim of dark blue cytoplasm and condensed nuclear chromatin in a ‘cartwheel’ pattern.
• b. stippling — distinct or diffuse, fine to coarse, dark granular pattern in erythrocytes, representing aggregated ribosomes and caused by ineffective heme formation. Seen in lead poisoning, mainly in dogs and a characteristic of active erythropoiesis in sheep and cattle.

The adjective has one meaning:

Meaning #1: (biology) staining readily with basic dyes
  Pertains to noun: basophilia (meaning #1)

A Basophil granulocyte stains dark blue upon H&E staining.

Basophilic is a technical term used by histologists. It describes the microscopic appearance of cells and tissues, as seen down the microscope, after a histological section has been stained with a basic dye. The most common such dye is haematoxylin.

Basophilic describes the appearance of structures seen in histological sections which take up basic dyes. The structures usually stained are those that contain nucleic acid such as the cell nucleus and ribosomes.

Basophils are cells that "love" base, and which usually show up deep blue under standard staining techniques (H&E). Specifically, this term refers to:

• basophil granulocytes
• anterior pituitary basophils

See also

• Acidophile (histology)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)