A comparison between low background silver diammine and silver nitrate protein stains.

Several methods of silver staining of proteins after sodium dodecyl sulfate-electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gels were compared. The most rapid methods were found to be less sensitive than more time-consuming methods. Among the long methods, those using glutaraldehyde treatment of the gel and silver diammine complex as the silvering agent were found to be the most sensitive, at the expense of the use of a modified polyacrylamide matrix and higher silver concentrations.