Analytical Sciences


Abstract − Analytical Sciences, 28(4), 379 (2012).

Vitamin C-silver: an Environmentally Benign Choice for DNA Visualization on Polyacrylamide Gels
Zhongxin ZHU,* Weitao CONG,* Hongzhang HE,* Xi WANG,*,** Mao CHEN,* Guoying HONG,* and Litai JIN*,***
*Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Biopharmaceuticals, Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou 325035, P. R. China
**The First People’s Hospital of Wenling, Taizhou 317500, P. R. China
***School of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130051, P. R. China
A practical, sensitive and environment-benign protocol for the detection of DNA on polyacrylamide gels was described. In this method, the most commonly used formaldehyde-based developer in DNA silver stain, which poses potential hazards to the health of operators, is firstly replaced by vitamin C (Vc) in sodium thiosulfate solution. This allows user-friendly and efficient visualization of DNA that takes about 20 min to complete all the procedures, and provides comparable sensitivity (8 pg of single band) to the most sensitive formaldehyde-based silver staining method developed before.