Introduction:

The anatomic diaphanization technique consists in the transparency of soft tissues of vertebrate organisms (clearing), in order to dye the mineralized tissue and visualize bone and cartilage (staining).

Objective:

To review the reports available on specialized literature that describes the embryonic development of mammal ́s skeletal system through the diaphonization technique and simple staining or double staining processes.

Materials and methods:

A literature review was made on PubMed, Academic Google and SciELO, based on PRISMA, through the association of the term double staining with the health descriptors of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) alizarin red, alician blue, bone and cartilage , and the combination of the Boolean operators + and &.

Results:

There were included 22 articles that described the diaphanization technique and the simple staining or double staining technique used in the observation, registration and analysis of the embryonic development of mammal ́s skeletal system.

Conclusion:

The diaphanization technique and simple staining or double staining technique is an anatomic study technique—versatile and of low cost—of the embryonic development of mammal ́s skeletal system, which may be used in toxicology studies, discarding the possibility of developmental anomalies during the cartilage or bone formation (chondrogenesis and osteogenesis, respectively) associated to the exposure to a possible teratogenic agent.