Reduction of photo bleaching and long term archiving of chemically cleared GFP-expressing mouse brains

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 2;9(12):e114149. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114149. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Tissue clearing allows microscopy of large specimens as whole mouse brains or embryos. However, lipophilic tissue clearing agents as dibenzyl ether limit storage time of GFP-expressing samples to several days and do not prevent them from photobleaching during microscopy. To preserve GFP fluorescence, we developed a transparent solid resin formulation, which maintains the specimens' transparency and provides a constant signal to noise ratio even after hours of continuous laser irradiation. If required, high-power illumination or long exposure times can be applied with virtually no loss in signal quality and samples can be archived for years.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / metabolism*
  • Brain / pathology
  • Brain / radiation effects
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / analysis
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / chemistry*
  • Lasers
  • Mice
  • Microscopy / methods
  • Photobleaching*
  • Resins, Synthetic
  • Tissue Embedding / methods*
  • Tissue Preservation

Substances

  • Resins, Synthetic
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins