Posted by Science magazine highlights a new method of visualization of organs in such a detail that has never seen before. A research team has turned the mice (post mortem) into fantastic 3D maps of anatomy with tissues, nerves, and vessels in bright colors. The new technique, which makes the corpses transparent and then exposes them to fluorescent antibodies labeling different cell types, could help – amongst other fields – drug development and may contribute to better understanding on cancer spreading. By this novel technology (called wildDISCO), the researchers removed cholesterol from the model bodies to allow various existing antibodies to penetrate deep into the animals to create this 3D map. This method allowed immunoglobulin G antibodies to go into the organisms’ entire tissues. This was accomplished by exposing the dead mouse bodies to different cyclodextrins such as 2-Hydroxypropyl-β-Cyclodextrin , SigmaAldrich’s standard Methyl-β-cyclodextrin, (2-Hydroxyethyl)-β-cyclodextrin, Triacetyl-β-cyclodextrin and Succinyl-β-cyclodextrin but Heptakis(2,6-di-O-methyl)-β-cyclodextrin worked the best in the initial studies. The CD treatment was carried out for two weeks in order to dissolve cholesterol in the cell membrane.
For the outcome and the fantastic results click here:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.17.528921v1
Image credits: The graphical abstact of document https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.17.528921 is under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.