TY - JOUR T1 - Fluorescent probes that stain living nerve terminals JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 1207 LP - 1214 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.07-04-01207.1987 VL - 7 IS - 4 AU - L Magrassi AU - D Purves AU - JW Lichtman Y1 - 1987/04/01 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/7/4/1207.abstract N2 - We have evaluated the efficacy of 18 cationic mitochondrial dyes that, as a class, show some ability to stain living nerve terminals. Several of these agents provide excellent staining of neuromuscular junctions in a wide range of species. More detailed studies of the most effective of these dyes--4-(4-diethylaminostyryl)-N-methylpyridinium iodide (4-Di- 2-ASP)--indicate that it has no lasting effect on the structure or function of motor nerve terminals. As demonstrated in the accompanying paper (Lichtman et al., 1987; see also Lichtman et al., 1986), 4-Di-2- ASP can therefore be used to follow the configuration of identified motor terminals over arbitrarily long intervals. ER -