Differentiation of silver-enhanced mercury and gold in tissue sections of rat dorsal root ganglia.

Autometallography was used in conjunction with light and electron microscopy to detect traces of gold and mercury in the dorsal root ganglia of rats treated with sodium aurothiomalate and mercuric chloride. In order to differentiate between gold and mercury in tissue sections, the gold accumulations were removed by potassium cyanide, leaving mercury sulphides/selenides as the only possible catalysts for autometallographic development. With this technique, it is now possible to differentiate between all tissue metals capable of initiating the autometallographic process, i.e. gold, vesicular zinc, and sulphides and selenides of mercury and silver.