[Better performance of Western blotting: quick vs slow protein transfer, blotting membranes and the visualization methods].

Objective: To study how the choices of the quick vs slow protein transfer, the blotting membranes and the visualization methods influence the performance of Western blotting.

Methods: The cellular proteins were abstracted from human breast cell line MDA-MB-231 for analysis with Western blotting using quick (2 h) and slow (overnight) protein transfer, different blotting membranes (nitrocellulose, PVDF and nylon membranes) and different visualization methods (ECL and DAB).

Results: In Western blotting with slow and quick protein transfer, the prestained marker presented more distinct bands on nitrocellulose membrane than on the nylon and PVDF membranes, and the latter also showed clear bands on the back of the membrane to very likely cause confusion, which did not occur with nitrocellulose membrane.