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Optical Clearing of the Mouse Central Nervous System Using Passive CLARITY
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Optical Clearing of the Mouse Central Nervous System Using Passive CLARITY

Published on: June 30, 2016

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Quantitative assessment of optical clearing methods in various intact mouse organs

Jianyi Xu1,2, Yilin Ma1,2, Tingting Yu1,2

  • 1Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

Journal of Biophotonics
|October 16, 2018
PubMed

Insights

This study compares optical clearing methods for various organs, evaluating clearing efficiency, deformation, and imaging depth. It identifies optimal methods for specific organs like the kidney and intestine, aiding researchers in selecting appropriate techniques for large-volume tissue imaging.

Area of Science:

  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Microscopy
  • Histology

Background:

  • Large-volume tissue imaging requires effective optical clearing methods.
  • Existing methods often focus on the brain, lacking comprehensive comparisons for other organs.
  • Selecting the right clearing technique for diverse organs is challenging due to limited data.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantitatively evaluate and compare the performance of various optical clearing techniques across multiple organs.
  • To identify the most suitable optical clearing methods for specific organs based on key parameters.
  • To provide a reference for researchers needing to select appropriate clearing methods for diverse biological samples.

Main Methods:

  • Applied seven typical optical clearing methods (3DISCO, uDISCO, SeeDB, FRUIT, CUBIC, ScaleS, PACT) to intact organs: brain, heart, kidney, liver, spleen, stomach, lung, small intestine, skin, and muscle.
  • Quantitatively assessed clearing efficiency, sample deformation, fluorescence preservation, and imaging depth for each method and organ.
  • Systematically analyzed the data to determine the optimal clearing method for specific organs.

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated significant variations in clearing efficiency, deformation, fluorescence retention, and imaging depth among different methods and organs.
  • Identified specific methods that excel for particular organs, such as optimized techniques for kidney and intestine clearing.
  • Provided quantitative data supporting the selection of appropriate clearing strategies for diverse tissue types.

Conclusions:

  • A systematic comparison of optical clearing methods across multiple organs is crucial for effective large-volume imaging.
  • The study successfully screened appropriate clearing methods for specific organs, including kidney and intestine.
  • This research offers valuable guidance for selecting optimal optical clearing techniques in various biological research applications.
Keywords:
fluorescence imagingintact organoptical clearing methodquantitative assessment

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