AFB Necklace

The AFB necklace is my interpretation of the Ziehl-Neelsen acid fast stain for bacteria. In this special stain the presence of acid-fast bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae (leprosy) which are pathogenic for man are demonstrated.

The tissue is stained with a fuchsin dye, the normally hard to stain acid-fast bacteria are colored bright fuchsia to red. Acid alcohol is applied and all tissue elements except the acid-fast ones are rendered colorless. The other tissue elements and other bacteria are stained light blue. So, you can see I chose fuchsia crystals to depict the Acid-Fast bacteria, light blue core beads as the background and a spiral pattern to demonstrate the corkscrew shape of T.B.