Published on April 10 in the online science journal Nature, the results of a study by Karl Deisserot and his colleagues at Stanford University of California suggest that scientists were able to make the mouse’s brain completely transparent. Scientific minds explain that they got this opportunity right after they applied a mixture of several chemicals.
Thanks to the chemical treatment, which was dubbed “CLARITY”, scientists were able to get rid of the lipids in the brain that blocked the passage of light and examine the structure of neural networks. Moreover, as a result of the experiment, scientists studied the structure of the brain under a microscope, and then, based on the data obtained, its three-dimensional image was reconstructed.
“The need to obtain a high-precision image of a complex system to understand the essence of the functioning of such a system against a general perspective is one of the key problems in modern biology,” the scientists write.
“We were able to solve this problem with a new method, which we called“ CLARITY ”(purity). The method allowed us to transform intact tissue into a nanoporous hydrogel-hybrid form (a three-dimensional network of readily soluble polymers), which, although it remained intact, it became completely transparent even at the molecular level. ”
Scientists believe that the day is not far off when CLARITY will begin to be used not only to study a healthy brain, but also in cases with its disorders and to monitor its aging process.
The article is based on materials .
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