Cytochemical demonstration of ketosteroids

IN a number of cytochemical papers1,2 it has been claimed that α-hydroxyketones, such as deoxycorticosterone, give a purple colour with reduced fuchsin in Feulgen‘s ‘plasmal' reaction. In this reaction the material under test is treated with cold saturated aqueous mercuric chloride solution, then with reduced fuchsin. According to Dempsey et al.3, aqueous mercuric chloride oxidizes the hydroxy-ketone to an aldehyde, which then reacts with reduced fuchsin.