In the present study,rabbit mesentery was fixed in three different fixatives and stained with thionine and thionine-toluidine blue respectively in order to find a good method to display mast cells.The results showed that lots of positive mast cells with light background could be presented clearly by Carnoy fixative and thionine staining.In addition,degranulation of some mast cells could be observed clearly.However,it was difficult to observe positive mast cells by Carnoy fixative and thionine-toluidine blue staining because of high interferential background.Only a little positive mast cells could be observed through formaldehyde-alcohol fixative and the two staining methods.Neutral formalin blocked the staining of mast cells completely,for neither of the staining methods could display mast cells.Most of the positive mast cells were distributed along the blood vessels.The results demonstrated that Carnoy and thionine were superordinary fixative and staining solution for clearly displaying mast cells of rabbit mesentery,respectively.