DAS: A simple, efficient, scalable and Dil-compatible optical clearing method for intact systems

摘要

There is increasing interest in the three-dimensional visualization and quantification of cellular circuits in the brain and therefore optical clearing methods are highly in demand for brain imaging. In particular, clarification without membrane damage is required to image lipophilic tracer-labeled neural tracts. However, previously reported DiI-compatible optical clearing methods are relatively slow and can hinder transparency for imaging. Here, we present DAS, a new, convenient, inexpensive and reproducible aqueous clearing reagent that can efficiently clarify tissues with minimal volume enlargement and reliably preserves emission from fluorescent proteins and lipophilic dyes in membrane integrity preserved tissues.