Pierce™ Background Eliminator Kit

The Thermo Scientific Pierce Background Eliminator Kit provides fast, easy removal of haze and artifacts on developed X-ray film to correct for overexposure of blots, whether from chemiluminescent Western blot or DNA or RNA autoradiography.

Features of the Background Eliminator Kit:

• For overexposed X-ray film—reverses development of silver-based autoradiography film removing silver emulsion from the film surface
• Recovers and preserved data—evenly reduces developed signal over the entire film so relative intensity (densitometry) of bands is not altered
• Optimizes for signal-to-noise—allows readjustment of overdeveloped film to obtain the best image with respect to background haze, speckles and oversaturated bands that need to be resolved
• Saves time and resources—eliminates the need to repeat experiments or re-expose a new piece of film to obtain an optimal image

This two-reagent kit is simple to use as demonstrated in the video below. Mix the two reagents (1:1 ratio) and immerse a developed piece of film (recent or old) in the working solution. Watch for 1 to 5 minutes until the desired image appears, then stop the reaction by rinsing the film in water. Pierce Background Eliminator for Film evenly reverses development-signal over the entire film, preserving relative densitometry values so that analysis and publication of results is still valid and possible.

Applications:
• X-ray film developed from enhanced chemiluminescence Western blots of any kind, whether from Thermo Scientific SuperSignal, Pierce ECL or other commercial substrate
• X-ray film developed from any chemiluminescent or radioactive gel-shift assays, including Thermo Scientific LightShift Chemiluminescent EMSA Kits for DNA or RNA
• Autoradiography film developed from chemiluminescent or isotopic (32P or 35S) Northern or Southern blots, including with Thermo Scientific North2South Chemiluminescent Detection Kit
• Any developed silver-emulsion photographic film, whether blue, clear, single- or double-sided, and regardless of the method of exposure

High background, shading, overexposed bands and speckling are problems inherent to film exposure. High background and shading are caused by overexposure, poor use of blocking buffer or inappropriate enzyme-labeled probe or antibody concentration. Overexposed bands are a common occurrence when the enzyme-labeled probe or antibody used is too concentrated or if the film was exposed for too long. Speckling and shading occur when enzyme conjugates form complexes and precipitate on the blot. Pierce Background Eliminator can correct all these problems without the need to re-expose a blot to film or re-do an entire experiment. The working solution can be used with newly exposed films or those that have been stored for years. In addition, the product can be used with any brand of film.