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SlowFade® Gold Antifade Reagents

SlowFade® Gold antifade reagent suppresses photobleaching and preserves the signals of your fluorescently labeled target molecules. For added convenience, SlowFade® Gold antifade reagent containing the blue-fluorescent nuclear counterstain DAPI is also available, eliminating the need for a separate counterstaining step.
Ultimate protection against photobleaching
SlowFade® Gold antifade reagent is a nonhardening mountant that was developed to provide the highest degree of antifade protection for the widest range of dyes.
Compatible with the broadest range of dyes
SlowFade® Gold antifade reagent offers excellent compatibility with a multitude of dyes across the spectrum, making it an especially valuable tool for multicolor applications.
Nonhardening mountant for immediate sample imaging
SlowFade® Gold antifade reagent does not cure over time so samples can be viewed immediately. SlowFade® reagents are intended for short-term preservation (3–4 weeks) only; mounted samples may degrade over time.

See For Yourself

SlowFade® Gold antifade reagent Figure 1—Multiplex FISH detection using SlowFade® Gold antifade reagent, FISH Tag™ RNA and TSA™ kits combined in a whole mount Drosophila embryo.  The expression of Krupple (magenta) and rhomboid (orange) were detected using FISH Tag™ RNA Kits with Alexa Fluor® 647 dye (Cat. no. F32955) and Alexa Fluor® 555 dye (Cat. no. F32953) or the Multicolor Kit (Cat. no. F32956). The expression of dpp was performed with a fluorescein-labeled RNA probe (ChromaTide® fluorescein-12-UTP, Cat. no. C7603) and detected with TSA™ Kit #2 with Alexa Fluor® 488 tyramide (Cat. no. T20912) and anti-fluorescein/Oregon Green®, rabbit IgG fraction, horseradish peroxidase conjugate (Cat. no. A21253).

  • Table 1—Degree of photobleaching protection by SlowFade® Gold antifade reagent for different fluorescent dyes.
    Fluorescent dye
    Resistance to photobleaching*
    Alexa Fluor® 350
    55%
    Alexa Fluor® 488
    90%
    Alexa Fluor® 546
    76%
    Alexa Fluor® 555
    89%
    Alexa Fluor® 568
    88%
    Alexa Fluor® 594
    92%
    Alexa Fluor® 633
    ND
    Alexa Fluor® 635
    85%
    Alexa Fluor® 647
    100%
    Alexa Fluor® 660
    99%
    Alexa Fluor® 680
    96%
    Alexa Fluor® 680
    99%
    7-Aminoactinomycin D
    91%
    Cy™2
    83%
    Cy™3
    83%
    Cy™5
    100%
    Fluorescein
    78%
    BODIPY® FL
    80%
    Tetramethylrhodamine
    75%
    Texas Red®
    75%
    DAPI
    69%
    SYTOX® Green
    77%
    TO-PRO®-3
    72%
    **Expressed as a percentage of initial fluorescence intensity remaining following 30 seconds of continuous illumination using a 40x/1.4 NA objective and a 100-watt Hg-arc lamp as the light source.

Comparing ProLong® Gold and SlowFade® Gold antifade reagents

As compared with our SlowFade® Gold antifade reagent, the ProLong® Gold antifade reagent provides very similar protection against photobleaching protection but in a formulation that cures into a semi-rigid gel after 24 hours. Mounted samples can be saved for months with appropriate storage.


 Figure 2—Comparison of the performance of different antifade reagents offered by Invitrogen. The data was generated from specimens of bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (BPAEC) labeled with fluorescein phalloidin and mounted in various antifade reagents. Samples were imaged using a 40×/1.3 NA oil immersion objective, Omega XF100-2 filter set and frame-capture rate of 1 image/second. Images were acquired with a Hamamatsu Orca ER camera using the same exposure time for all samples. Y-axis values represent averages of the top 10% of the intensity-binned pixel values.

Looking for our Original SlowFade® Antifade Kit?

Our original SlowFade® formulation is the only antifade we offer that can be used without glycerol. This makes it the ideal choice for certain applications that employ lipophilic dyes, such as neuronal tracing, in which the presence of glycerol could cause leeching of the tracing dyes from the tissue.