Mice became completely transparent!

Mice became completely transparent!

American researchers have developed a technique to make transparent laboratory mice. Brain, lungs, stomach and kidneys, all organs can then be visualized in three dimensions even within the body of the subject of study.

Within two to three days following the injection of a special gel in the blood of laboratory mice, the brain (C), kidneys (black arrow in B), his heart, lungs and intestines become transparent .  The rest of the body (dorsal view in A, ventral view B) reaches the same state after two days.  © Yang et al, Cell.

Called Clarity , the new process is to make transparent a mouse in its entirety has the purpose to allow detailed mapping of the nervous system of the animal. http://enjoycoloring.com/ And it will facilitate the understanding of how the brain and its interaction with the rest of the body in particular with a view to study the spread of cancer or to improve treatments against chronic pain, the authors report in the journal Cell .

For Viviana Gradinaru, a researcher at the Institute of Technology of California, USA, and co-author of the article, this is a first. Previous experiments had helped to make transparent the brains or embryos , but none to his knowledge had hitherto been applied to an entire rodent adult.