Silver Staining Using Tungstosilicic Acid

The gel is fixed with about a fivefold of its volume with Soln. A for 

30 min. Then it is washed four times with water for 5 min each. 

Put the gel into a fivefold volume of Soln. B and observe development of bands. Discard Soln. B after 10-15 min and stop formation of bands by Soln. C. 

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The search for more rapid and sensitive methods of protein detection after electrophoresis led to the development of fluorescent staining techniques. Two commonly used fluorescent reagents are fluorescamine and anilinonaphthalene sulfonate. New dyes based on silver salts (silver diamine or silver-tungstosilicic acid complex) have been developed for protein staining. They are 10 to 100 times more sensitive than Coomassie Blue (Fig. 4.7). 

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