ORIGINAL ARTICLES APPLICATION OF SILVER ACETATE AUTOMETALLOGRAPHY AND GOLD-SILVER STAINING METHODS FOR IN SITU DNA HYBRIDIZATION

In situ hybridization using biotinylated DNA probes hasbecome an important tool in histopathology.It is well knownthat the sensitivity of the methods used to demonstrate viralDNA in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded specimen de-pends strongly on the detection system used.In the presentstudy,an optimized in situ DNA hybridization protocol wascombined with four different approaches of gold-silver stainingmethods.For silver enhancement,the recently described meth-od of silver acetate autometallography,a technique allowinghighly efficient development without the necessity of dark roomillumination has been used.The most efficient detection methodfound in our experiments was the use of gold-adsorbedanti-biotin antibodies with subsequent silver enhancement.Thisstaining procedure can be completed in 5 hours includinghybridization and is a highly sensitive alternative to peroxidaseand alkaline phosphatase detection systems.