Scientists recently created a transparent mouse, which is the first example in the medical world that can make the entire animal body transparent. The results help to monitor the spread of cancer cells in the body, thereby achieving more accurate clinical diagnosis and disease monitoring. The results of this study were published in the journal American Cell. The original author of the study, Yanbin, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, told Xinhua News Agency that transparent mice made us survive because their technology could not keep them alive. He said that he does not have to worry about showing up in his house. According to Yanbin, the internal organs of rats and other organisms are opaque because the lipids of various tissues in the body scatter so much light that the light cannot penetrate the tissues. Lipids are very important to the structure of cells and tissues, and only the removal of lipids will destroy the structure of the tissues. To solve this problem, they developed a technology called "In-situ Perfusion Media Release (PARS)". The key is to introduce hydrogel to maintain the structure of the tissue.
Yanbin said that he used this technology to effectively make the mouse brain transparent. In a new experiment, they first euthanized the mice, and then used the mice's blood circulatory system to infuse a hydrogel solution to bind proteins in the body and replace lipids in tissues. Removal of lipids not only makes cells and tissues transparent, but also effectively maintains their structure. However, this method can only make internal organs transparent, not suitable for bones. In evaluating the importance of this result, he pointed out that the previous "transparency" technology was limited to the study of individual organs or tissues in the brains and embryos of small animals (mainly mice). These methods usually result in different degrees of tissue damage, and the new technology effectively retains the different information in the tissue and adapts the transparent tissue to different staining and microscopy techniques.
"This technology is very economical and practical, because we simplify the steps to make the tissue transparent, reduce the time to achieve transparency, and make the entire mouse transparent within 2 weeks. Yang Bin said. Processing small experimental animals can also be used for ape and human research. For example, this technology allows you to clearly see the internal three-dimensional structure of rat kidneys and other organs, or observe the internal three-dimensional structure of human skin cancer. And cell composition, in the future, this technology can also be used to detect biological tissue samples Cancer cells, map neurons in the peripheral nervous system, and study the distribution of HIV in the body.