BrainFilm, a novel technique for physical compression of 3D brain slices for efficient image acquisition and post-processing

Joo Yeon Kim, Hyun Jung Kim, Min Jee Jang, June Hoan Kim, Ju Hyun Lee, Eunsoo Lee, Kyerl Park, Hyuncheol Kim, Jaedong Lee, Jeehyun Kwag, Namhee Kim, Mi Ryoung Song, Hyun Kim, Woong Sun

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Tissue clearing enables us to observe thick tissue at a single cell resolution by reducing light scattering and refractive index matching. However, imaging of a large volume of tissue for 3D reconstruction requires a great deal of time, cost, and efforts. Few methods have been developed to transcend these limitations by mechanical compression or isotropic tissue shrinkage. Tissue shrinkage significantly lessens the imaging burden; however, there is an inevitable trade-off with image resolution. Here, we have developed the "BrainFilm" technique to compress cleared tissue at Z-axis by dehydration, without alteration of the XY-axis. The Z-axis compression was approximately 90%, and resulted in substantial reduction in image acquisition time and data size. The BrainFilm technique was successfully used to trace and characterize the morphology of thick biocytin-labelled neurons following electrophysiological recording and trace the GFP-labelled long nerve projections in irregular tissues such as the limb of mouse embryo. Thus, BrainFilm is a versatile tool that can be applied in diverse studies of 3D tissues in which spatial information of the Z-axis is dispensable.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8531
JournalScientific reports
Volume8
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018 Dec 1

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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