Figure 2.

Toluidine blue staining patterns associated with varying levels of chromatin condensation in the West Indian manatee. (A) no stain uptake, (B) very light pale blue (very slight stain uptake with bipolar orthochromatic staining), (C) light pale blue (slightly darker stain uptake with more defined bipolar orthochromatic staining), (D) dispersive dark blue (mostly light blue with dark blue dispersed, generally creating a line up the middle of the sperm head), (E) intermediate blue/violet (either darker blue or a light violet/purple color with or without bipolar staining), (F) dark blue/violet (intense blue/violet metachromatic staining). (A-C) are considered normal with normal chromatin condensation, (D–F) represent abnormal chromatin condensation with varying levels of chromatin decondensation.