Development and Mechanisms of Silver Stains for Electrophoresis

Application of Silver Staining for Proteins in Rapid Staining of Undecalcified Tooth Sections

“…1c. The variety of colors in silver staining has been described in previous reports 7,13,14) . Chuba and Palchaudhuri 13) mentioned that contents of cysteine residue and other components affect colors in silver staining.…”

“…Unexpectedly, staining of tooth sections showed coloration prior to developing step. In silver staining procedure, reduction of silver ions to silver metals by formaldehyde in developing solution leads to the coloration of proteins 7,8) . Because formalin-fixed tooth specimens were used in this study, the reduction of silver ions by residual formalin in the specimens might have caused the appearance of various colors during the staining step.…”

“…In biochemical studies, silver staining technique has been applied to detect proteins or nucleic acids in gel electrophoresis [5][6][7][8] . The steps in silver staining for protein gel electrophoresis are as follows: i) fixing the protein in gel; ii) enhancing the sensitivity and contrast of the staining; iii) staining with either silver nitrate or silverammonia complex solution; iv) developing the silver metal images;…”

“…During the developing stage, silver ions and/or silver complex ions binding to protein are reduced to silver metals by an alkaline solution such as formaldehyde 7,8) . This results to the detection of proteins as colored bands on gel by a process similar to the development of photographic film.…”

“…Because of its sensitivity, silver staining has gained wide popularity in protein gel electrophoresis. A number of staining protocols for protein gel electrophoresis have been described [7][8][9][10] , and several are commercially available. On the other hand, silver staining method has been also used to observe calcified tooth tissues 11,12) .…”