Succinylation-Alcian Blue Staining of Mucins on Polyvinylidene Difluoride Membranes

Abstract

Alcian blue staining has been widely used to visualize acidic mucins and mucopolysaccharides in supported molecular matrix electrophoresis (SMME) and on membrane transferred from electrophoresis gels. Mucins with low acidic glycan content, however, cannot be stained with Alcian blue, which is one of the major drawbacks of this staining method. On the other hand, periodic acid-Schiff staining can selectively visualize glycoproteins, including mucins, regardless of the acidic residue content; however, periodic acid-Schiff staining decomposes glycans. Here, we introduce succinylation-Alcian blue staining as an alternative staining method to visualize mucins, regardless of the acidic residue content, and without glycan decomposition.