Silver Enhancement Procedure
using AURION R-Gent SE-LM
(Silver Enhancement for Light
Microscopy)
1. Once the DEVELOPER and ENHANCER reagents have reached
temperature equilibrium, equal parts are mixed immediately before applying the
enhancement mixture to the specimens. The specimens should be fully covered by
the mixture.
2. Enhancement is done at room temperature (preferably 20°C). Gentle shaking is optional.
3. Typical enhancement times are between 15 and 25 minutes. Auto-nucleation is visible only after 30-40 minutes.
The on-going process may be monitored using an inverted light microscope with dimmed light conditions. In this way heat transfer to the enhancement mixture is kept low.
4. When enhancement is complete (judged by the presence of the brown to black signal developed) the specimens are washed extensively with distilled water (at least 3x5 minutes). A postfixation with photographic fixer is not required.
5. After washing light microscopical specimens may be counterstained according to standard procedures.
6. Short term storage (up to 1 year) can be acchieved by
mounting in water compatible Glycergel™ (DAKO).
For long term storage it is necessary to dehydrate the silver enhanced specimens and to mount in water-incompatible media such as Pertex (HistoLab, Sweden).
