Freshly harvested rat peritoneal mast cells were stained with different concentrations of acridine orange, a metachromatic fluorochrome known to form complexes with chromatin and muscopolysaccharides. Fluorescence metachromasia was observed in cytoplasmic granules in cell populations with intracelluar dye contents as low as 5 X 10(-16) mole per cell, one-half decade lower than required to produce metachromatic staining of the nucleus. Cytoplasmic granules did not stain uniformly throughout the cell; some granules exhibited red fluorescence and others green. As the amount of acridine orange uptake per cell was increased, cytoplasmic fluorescence became uniformly red and nuclear fluorescence gradually changed from green to yellow.

The fading behavior of the 670 nm fluorescence emission band produced by unfixed rat mast cells stained with acridine orange (AO) has been found to be in excellent agreement with the behavior predicted by second order chemical kinetics. The reciprocal of fluorescence intensity plotted against time yields a straight line. When due account is taken of dye/cell ratio and the intensity of fluorescence-exciting radiation, Io (measured with the standard phosphor particle), the slope of this straight line is a constant, k'', which is independent of dye/cell ratio and Io. k'' differs from the second order photochemical rate constant by a constant factor. The fading of a given AO-biopolymer complex is described by a particular value of k''. Two values of k'' have been found for rat mast cell granules, indicating the presence of two different AO-biopolymer complexes. Fading of fluorescence may serve to identify particular intracellular biopolymers in individual cells even when present in a heterogeneous population.

Root canals in extracted maxillary anterior teeth were filled with an experimental Teflon®‐base material and then stored in a dye solution. Penetration of the dye into the canal space was measured and compared with the penetration of dye in control teeth that were filled with laterally condensed gutta‐percha and a sealer. The sealing ability of the experimental material was found to be statistically significantly better than that of the control.