Mechanical de-skewing enables high-resolution imaging of thin tissue slices with a mesoSPIM light-sheet microscope

Abstract

Optical clearing combined with light-sheet microscopy enables high-resolution imaging of extended tissue at scale. However, standard mesoSPIM systems are optimised for intact organs and are not suited to thin tissue slices. We present a no-shear imaging protocol using obliquely mounted samples held between refractive-index-matched slides in a 3D-printed frame. This enables mechanical de-skewing during acquisition, minimising post-processing requirements. We demonstrate feasibility in fluorescent bead phantoms and rabbit heart tissue, achieving a 4.8x reduction in processing time and a 1.5x improvement in axial resolution compared to the shear-method. The no-shear method extends mesoSPIMs utility to fragile, laterally extended tissue sections.