Jk. Choi et al., A FAST AND SENSITIVE COOMASSIE BLUE STAINING FOR PROTEINS IN POLYACRYL-AMIDE GELS USING ION-PAIRING AGENT, Analytical letters, 29(9), 1996, pp. 1517-1525
Here we describe a fast and sensitive Coomassie blue staining method f
or detection of proteins in polyacrylamide gels using an ion-pairing a
gent, tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOA). To increase sensitivity, sodiu
m dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in an electrophoresed gel was removed by washi
ng with water for 5 min, and then the gel was stained in the mixed sol
ution of 0.25% Coomassie brilliant blue R-250 (CB), and 1% TOA (mixed
up at a 10 : 0.6 volume ratio). TOA inhibits the binding of CB to gel
matrix by forming an ion-pair complex, thus not only increases the sta
ining of CB but also helps make background destaining easy. This stain
ing method reduces the staining and destaining times to 50 min and inc
reases the detection limit up to 25 ng of bovine serum albumin (BSA).