BBC Focus

SEE-THROUGH

MICE OFFER

UNPRECEDENTED

VIEW OF THE

NERVOUS SYSTEM

How do you peer inside an animal without taking
an X-ray or MRI scan? By making it transparent,
of course.
Researchers at Ludwig Maximilian University of
Munich in Germany have developed a technique to
render the bodies of small mammals such as mice
and rats completely see-through, allowing their
nervous systems and organs to be studied in greater
detail than ever before.
Dubbed uDISCO, ultimate 3D Imaging of
Solvent-Cleared Organs, the new method works by
stripping the water and fat out of the bodies of
dead mice and rats using a solvent. After three or
four days of treatment, the researchers are left
with a shrunken, almost entirely transparent
version of the animal.
By targeting the organ systems of interest with
fluorescent proteins, the researchers were able to
create detailed images of the various structures
within the animal such as veins or neurons.
“Since it allows individual cells to be localised,
the method could be used to detect and
characterise metastatic tumours [cancers that
spread to other parts of the body] at an earlier stage
than is now feasible, or to monitor how stem cells
behave in the body following a bone-marrow
transplant,” said researcher Ali Ertürk.
As the technique is refined, it may be applied to
larger animals such as monkeys and potentially
even a whole human brain, the researchers say.
This could help us learn more about neurological
disorders such Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

BIOLOGY

This mouse has been

made transparent with

the uDISCO method,

allowing scientists to

see its organs

DISCOVERIES