Silver staining the caveolae intracellularis of smooth muscle

Bodian silver staining of guinea-pig Taenia coli produces a regular distribution of silver at the periphery of the smooth muscle cells. Electron microscopic analysis of this precipitate revealed that the membrane of the caveolae intracellularis was the only structure at the periphery of the cells that consistently exhibited a high affinity for silver. Thus, this staining method demonstrates that caveolae are distributed over most of the cell surface in an orderly pattern.