北京脑科学与类脑研究中心Hu Zhao等研究人员合作利用透明包埋溶剂系统绘制从手指到脊髓的单个感觉神经轴图。这一研究成果于2024年1月3日在线发表在国际学术期刊《细胞研究》上。

研究人员介绍了透明包埋溶剂系统（TESOS）方法，该方法结合了组织清除、透明包埋、切片和块面成像。研究人员使用TESOS获取了成年小鼠全身样本的均匀分辨率容积图像。TESOS方法具有很强的通用性，可与不同的显微镜系统结合使用，以获得均匀的高分辨率。

使用共聚焦显微镜和40×/1.3数值孔径物镜，研究人员在120小时内以0.8×0.8×3.5μm3的统一体素分辨率对包括皮肤在内的成年小鼠全身进行了成像。此外，TESOS还首次以亚微米级的统一分辨率绘制了从成年小鼠手指到脊髓的单个感觉神经元轴突的中尺度连接组图谱。

据悉，对大型组织样本实现均匀的光学分辨率是深部成像的一大挑战。对于传统的组织清理方法，由于透明度有限，深部区域的分辨率和质量损失不可避免。

附：英文原文

Title: Mapping of individual sensory nerve axons from digits to spinal cord with the transparent embedding solvent system

Author: Yi, Yating, Li, Youqi, Zhang, Shiwen, Men, Yi, Wang, Yuhong, Jing, Dian, Ding, Jiayi, Zhu, Qingjie, Chen, Zexi, Chen, Xingjun, Li, Jun-Liszt, Wang, Yilong, Wang, Jun, Peng, Hanchuan, Zhang, Li, Luo, Wenjing, Feng, Jian Q., He, Yongwen, Ge, Woo-Ping, Zhao, Hu

Issue&Volume: 2024-01-03

Abstract: Achieving uniform optical resolution for a large tissue sample is a major challenge for deep imaging. For conventional tissue clearing methods, loss of resolution and quality in deep regions is inevitable due to limited transparency. Here we describe the Transparent Embedding Solvent System (TESOS) method, which combines tissue clearing, transparent embedding, sectioning and block-face imaging. We used TESOS to acquire volumetric images of uniform resolution for an adult mouse whole-body sample. The TESOS method is highly versatile and can be combined with different microscopy systems to achieve uniformly high resolution. With a light sheet microscope, we imaged the whole body of an adult mouse, including skin, at a uniform 0.8×0.8×3.5μm3 voxel resolution within 120h. With a confocal microscope and a 40×/1.3 numerical aperture objective, we achieved a uniform sub-micron resolution in the whole sample to reveal a complete projection of individual nerve axons within the central or peripheral nervous system. Furthermore, TESOS allowed the first mesoscale connectome mapping of individual sensory neuron axons spanning 5cm from adult mouse digits to the spinal cord at a uniform sub-micron resolution.

DOI: 10.1038/s41422-023-00867-3

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-023-00867-3