title: Label-free volumetric optical imaging of intact murine brains.
abstract: A central effort of today's neuroscience is to study the brain's 'wiring diagram'. The nervous system is believed to be a network of neurons interacting with each other through synaptic connection between axons and dendrites, therefore the neuronal connectivity map not only depicts the underlying anatomy, but also has important behavioral implications. Different approaches have been utilized to decipher neuronal circuits, including electron microscopy (EM) and light microscopy (LM). However, these approaches typically demand extensive sectioning and reconstruction for a brain sample. Recently, tissue clearing methods have enabled the investigation of a fully assembled biological system with greatly improved light penetration. Yet, most of these implementations, still require either genetic or exogenous contrast labeling for light microscopy. Here we demonstrate a high-speed approach, termed as Clearing Assisted Scattering Tomography (CAST), where intact brains can be imaged at optical resolution without labeling by leveraging tissue clearing and the scattering contrast of optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI).
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.|Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Heejin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.|Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.|Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.|Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.|Broad Institute of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
authors.forename: Kwanghun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.|Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.|Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Brett E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Bouma
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051379:Mice; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods; D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000379:methods; D009929:Organ Size; D014054:Tomography / Q000379:methods