First Imaging Technique That Makes Organism Completely Transparent
LMU researchers have developed a novel bioimaging technology that provides top-notch insights into nerve-cell interactions in Mammals & other organisms. The technology has been developed based on a method of making organs & tissues in organisms transparent. This new imaging technique has attracted the research community lately and it promises to transform the way the nervous system has been studied till now.
Dr. Ali Ertürk from Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research at the LMU Medical Center the lead researcher along with his a team developed this technology. This new imaging technique is termed as vDISCO. vDISCO represents an extension of a previous method dubbed uDISCO, details of which were first published by Ertürk and colleagues earlier in 2016 in a separate research paper. The current research findings are published in Nature Neuroscience.
vDISCO acts by turning organs at times even the whole organism transparent, making imaging procedures easier to execute. The researchers can analyze individual cells by staining specific proteins with antibodies labeled with fluorescent markers. Since the organisms turn to see through tissue permits passage of the light required to excite the fluorescent signals.
Using an initial imaging system uDISCO, Ertürk and group were able to have a detailed view of intact nervous systems
of the mouse, but it lacked clarity as traces of other bones & tissues were also visible. Whereas in vDISCO, the whole organism turns transparent by the use of a mixture of chemicals whose composition was modified. This makes it the first technique that is capable of making whole animals fully transparent.Complex nervous systems of small mammals can now be fully visualized using vDISCO. Via this technique scientists will now be able to study the cellular – neural interactions causing inflammation and wound healing for example. It has already aided researchers to analyze unexpected structural connections between remote organs.
