We have generally used a backlit viewer to visualize our precipitin rings
or immunoelectrophoretic patterns for analysis. If you want to make a
permanent record of the gel then you could try the following procedure.
1. Wash off excess protein by soaking the gel in in 3 changes of 2% NaCl
for a total time of at least 6 hours. We commonly leave the last change
overnight.
2. rinse in dH2O for 1 hour.
3. Dry the gel by placing wetted strips of lintless blotter paper over the
gel, leaving all troughs and wells filled with water. Air dry overnight.
4. Carefully peel off the paper and immerse the dried gel in a solution
containing 9 grams of amido black in 1500 ml of rinsing solution.
Rinsing solution:
1. 2700 ml methanol
2. 600 ml acetic acid
3. 2700 ml dH2O
5. stain dried gels for 5 min.
6. destain in rinsing solution making frequent changes of the buffer until
the background staining is gone.
7. Air dry the gels.
I hope this helps, we have used it to make demonstation sets for student
teaching purposes. The resulting stained gels do not fade but are easily
scratched.
Regards
BJC Brian
