Rapid and prodium iodide-compatible optical clearing method for brain tissue based on sugar/sugar-alcohol

J Biomed Opt. 2016 Aug;21(8):081203. doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.21.8.081203.

Abstract

The developed optical clearing methods show great potential for imaging of large-volume tissues, but these methods present some nonnegligible limitations such as complexity of implementation and long incubation times. In this study, we tried to screen out rapid optical clearing agents by means of molecular dynamical simulation and experimental demonstration. According to the optical clearing potential of sugar and sugar-alcohol,we further evaluated the improvement in the optical clearing efficacy of mouse brain samples, imaging depth, fluorescence preservation, and linear deformation. The results showed that drops of sorbitol, sucrose, and fructose could quickly make the mouse brain sample transparent within 1 to 2 min, and induce about threefold enhancement in imaging depth. The former two could evidently enhance the fluorescence intensity of green fluorescent protein (GFP) and prodium iodide (PI) nuclear dye. Fructose could significantly increase the fluorescence intensity of PI, but slightly decrease the fluorescence intensity of GFP. Even though the three agents caused some shrinkage in samples, the contraction in horizontal and longitudinal directions are almost the same.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging*
  • Brain Chemistry / physiology*
  • Fluorescent Dyes / analysis
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemistry
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / analysis
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / chemistry
  • Histocytochemistry / methods*
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Microscopy
  • Propidium / chemistry*
  • Sugar Alcohols / chemistry*

Substances

  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Sugar Alcohols
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins
  • Propidium