Silver-enhanced colloidal gold probes as markers for scanning electron microscopy.

Silver enlargement of small colloidal gold particles has been extensively used for the light microscopical visualization of gold probes. Very recently, a few investigators have employed physical developers in electron microscopy (both pre-embedding and on-grid staining methods). We now demonstrate that physical development of small colloidal gold particles advantageously can be exploited for labelling biological surfaces in scanning electron microscopy. This novel application of silver enhancement of colloidal gold particles is characterized by a high detection efficiency. Thus, specimens are labelled with small gold probes affording high immunocytochemical efficiency but being impossible to detect with the present scanning microscopes. These particles are subsequently scanning electronmicroscopically visualized by silver enhancement.