Application

Silver Enhancer Kit has been used to determine the presence of gold nanorods in various tissues and to prepare silver enhanced gold colloids for electron microscopy.

Features and Benefits

Colloidal gold labels are normally visible only at the electron microscope level. Silver Enhancer enlarges the gold colloid label by precipitation of metallic silver to give a high contrast signal visible under a light microscope. A darkroom is not necessary for this procedure, as the silver enhancer working solution is light-stable for 20-30 minutes under ordinary laboratory lighting.

Packaging

The Silver Enhancer kit consists of Solution A (silver salt), Solution B (initiator), Sodium Thiosulfate (fixer), and a Technical Bulletin describing their use.

Principle

Solution A and Solution B are mixed 1:1 immediately before use and applied to the slide holding the gold-labeled section. After 5-10 minutes, the slide is rinsed with distilled water, fixed for 2-3 minutes in a sodium thiosulfate solution, and rinsed again. The section is now ready for counterstaining and mounting as required.