Fast silver staining of polyacrylamide gels at elevated temperatures

Abstract Renouncing protein fixation with aldehydes, the polyacrylamide gels are incubated in alcoholic solutions of silver nitrate containing acetic acid at 60–70 °C. for a short time and developed with NaOH, also at 60–70 °C. Using various methods of protein fixation, the detection limits of human albumin were determined for 0.75 and 1.5 mm thick polyacrylamide gels with appropriate thickness correction. An overlay technique with silver nitrate containing polyacrylamide gels is described. Dispersing Coomassie Brilliant Blue G‐250 in a solution containing HNO3 and NH4NO3 allows rapid silver staining of prestained gels.