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Actually, both methods are used during the staining procedure (steam & heat fix). Initially, the organism is heat fixed to the slide to prevent the organism from being washed off during subsequent steps. Later in the procedure, the slide with the heat fixed organism is steamed to make the cell wall a little more penetrable - allowing the stain to enter the cell wall.

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Q: Why steam heating is done in acid fast staining and not heat fixing?
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If your talking about Acid Fast staining (aka Ziehl-Neelsen staining), after the addition of the primary stain (carbol fuchsin) heat is applied in order to facilitate proper staining. Bacteria such as Mycobacterium contain large amounts of lipid substances within their cell wall called mycolic acids. These acids resist staining by ordinary methods such as gram staining (where heat is not applied after primary staining). On application of heat, the stain carbol fuschin penetrates the cell wall and stains the cells pink. Following the secondary staining (methylene blue) the acid fast positive cells appear pink while others are stained blue. Endospore staining is yet another staining technique where heat is applied after primary staining (malachite green). In this case the spores are impermeable to stains, hence heating favours proper permeation of stain. Endospores appear green while vegetative cells appear red (secondary stain saffranine). Not all staining procedures involve applying heat after primary staining. However, heat is applied before even beginning the staining procedure. This is called heat fixing, where the cells are fixed so that they are not washed away during the subsequent washing steps.