tetrazolium

Any of a group of organic salts having the general structure that on reduction (cleaving the 2,3 bond) yields a colored insoluble formazan; used as a reagent in oxidative enzyme histochemistry.

- nitroblue t. (NBT) a pale yellow dye that is converted on reduction to colored formazans in the histochemical demonstration of dehydrogenases; used in hematology for staining of neutrophils to help indicate the presence of bacterial infections.

* * *

tet·ra·zo·li·um .te-trə-'zō-lē-əm n a monovalent cation or group CH₃N₄ that is analogous to ammonium also any of several of its derivatives used esp. as electron acceptors to test for metabolic activity in living cells