Silver staining is one of the most sensitive methods for detecting proteins in a polyacrylamide gel. By using a silver stain, it’s possible to detect as little as 1ng/band of protein as compared to 30-100ng/band detected by Coomassie Blue staining. However, unlike Coomassie Blue staining, silver stain methods can be both time consuming and labor intensive. And optimal protein detection as well as consistent, reproducible results are highly dependent on the quality of reagents and the protocol. Fortunately, the advent of commercial kits has greatly simplified this procedure and decreased the amount of time required. When I needed to identify interacting proteins in my experiments, I opted to use a commercial kit as neither I nor anyone in my lab had any previous experience with silver staining. The Bio-Rad Silver Stain Plus Kit was highly recommended for its ease and speed of use and it lived up to its billing.
The Bio-Rad Silver Stain Plus Kit uses a carrier complex silver staining chemistry. It is 30-50 fold more sensitive than Coomassie Blue staining and detects nanogram quantities of both protein and DNA. However, I have used it only for protein.
The kit is very easy to use. It contains all the reagents required (except methanol and acetic acid) thus minimizing preparation time. It requires only 3 steps - fixation, rinse and stop - which can take as little as 1 hour, with very little hands on time. I was able to get good results the first time I used it, without any modification of the accompanying protocol. There was very little background staining and the results were consistent and reproducible over numerous experiments.
For speed, convenience, economy and consistent and reproducible results I would recommend the Bio-Rad Silver Stain Plus Kit enthusiastically to anyone. Novices will find its ease of use especially attractive.
Onikepe Adegbola
Graduate Student
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine