Developing Chick Embryo

The story

Tissue clearing is a ground breaking technique that has transformed our ability to image complex biological structures in 3D, including visualization of intricate cellular architectures in their native environment with high spatial resolution. It involves selectively reducing the amount of light-scattering and absorption molecules (e.g lipids) from biological tissues while preserving both the structural integrity of the tissue and the molecules of interest.

Research area

Growing new lung tissue in the lab for transplantation or to use this bioengineered tissue to study how the extracellular environment directs stem cell behaviour.

Impact

Over the years, numerous tissue clearing methods have been developed, each with its own advantages and limitations. We have designed a new, more versatile and cost effective detergent-based tissue clearing method that is easy to adopt and implement across different laboratories.

Image description

The image shows an early-stage developing chick embryo. We chose to clear chick embryos to demonstrate the versatility of our tissue-clearing protocol, as embryos contain a variety of tissue types. Surrounding the embryo, you see blood vessels from the chorion extending toward the embryo. The image displays a 3D reconstruction of the chick embryo, imaged using light-sheet fluorescence microscopy.

Credits

Lund University Bioimaging Centre (LBIC)