A team of Japanese researchers from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology has successfully rendered the human tissue transparent and see-through, by making use of a sugar solution.
This new sugar solution turns tissues transparent, and doesn't affect their chemical composition, the researchers claim.
This new discovery may prove to be an amazing breakthrough and may help scientists have a better, clearer look at the body's internal functions. This technique, combined with fluorescent microscopy, has already allowed scientists to get a detailed image of the brain of a mouse.
Other, previously used techniques to achieve transparency in tissues have allowed scientists to look down into and observe the brain structure of the subject used.
"However, these clearing techniques have limitations because they induce chemical and morphological damage to the sample and require time-consuming procedures," Dr Takeshi Imai, who led the study, explained.
SeeDB, the water-based sugar solution developed by Dr Imai and his team, has successfully overcome all these limitations and effectively turned mouse embryos and brains transparent in merely three days, without causing any damage whatsoever to the structure of the samples.
This transparency also enabled the scientists to have a look at the neuronal circuitry inside the brain of the mouse, and without mechanically making sections of the brain.
What's more, the scientists were also able to describe in detail the complex wiring patterns of commissural fibers which connected the left and right hemispheres of the brain, in three dimensions, for the first time ever.
"Because SeeDB is inexpensive, quick, easy and safe to use, and requires no special equipment, it will prove useful for a broad range of studies, including the study of neuronal circuits in human samples," the authors collectively explained.
SeeDB has also allowed scientists to visualize the wiring of mitral cells in the olfactory bulb, in a single-fiber resolution.
This new sugar solution may open up new possibilities in the detection and treatment of various disorders of the body, and may help scientists get an easier look at the different functions and body structures.
Their findings are reported in Nature Neuroscience.
