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Updated: Feb 18, 2026

Optical Clearing of the Mouse Central Nervous System Using Passive CLARITY
Published on: June 30, 2016
High-refractive index of acrylate embedding resin clarifies mouse brain tissue
Hongfu Zhou1,2, Yumiao Xiong1,2, Yu Wang1,2
1Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Britton, China.
Abstract:
Biological tissue transparency combined with light-sheet fluorescence microscopy is a useful method for studying the neural structure of biological tissues. The development of light-sheet fluorescence microscopy also promotes progress in biological tissue clearing methods. The current clarifying methods mostly use liquid reagent to denature protein or remove lipids first, to eliminate or reduce the scattering index or refractive index of the biological tissue. However, denaturing protein and removing lipids require complex procedures or an extended time period. Therefore, here we have developed acrylate resin with a high refractive index, which causes clearing of biological tissue directly after polymerization. This method can improve endogenous fluorescence retention by adjusting the pH value of the resin monomer.

