Accelerated clearing and molecular labeling of large tissue samples using magnetohydrodynamic force

Abstract

Here we report a strategy to efficiently render opaque biological tissues transparent and demonstrate that this approach can be modified to rapidly label intact samples with antibodies for large volume fluorescence microscopy. This strategy applies a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) force to accelerate the removal of lipids from and the introduction of antibodies into tissue samples as large as an intact adult mouse brain. This strategy complements a growing array of tools that enable high-resolution 3-dimensional anatomical analyses in intact tissues using fluorescence microscopy. MHD-accelerated clearing and MHD-accelerated antibody labeling are fast, reliable, inexpensive, and compatible with existing strategies for high-quality fluorescence microscopy of intact tissues.