New techniques to diagnose diseases without X-rays

In fictional films, we often see mutants who have the ability to see through the muscles and bones of the body . But now scientists have made that extraordinary ability appear in real life and apply them in diagnosing diseases.

This technique is done by making tissue layers transparent so that scientists can look at properties such as nerves and blood vessels as they remain inside the animal's body.

Scientists have produced high-resolution 3D images of the mouse's brain and nervous system. In the near future, they will conduct experiments on large mammals like monkeys. Scientists hope, in the future, this technique will be applied on human tissue to advance human brain mapping, which is helpful in diagnosing diseases such as motor neuron disease (MND), Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's.

Dr Ali Ertürk , a researcher at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research in Ludwig Maximilians, University of Munich, said: " We have developed a superior technique that allows the entire organism to be transformed. This new method provides a basic foundation for mapping neurons, glial cells and the relationship between blood vessels across all laboratory animals. experience and approach the brain of the dead ".

Water and fat can scatter light and are the main components of mammalian tissues that make them opaque.

New techniques can be applied to animals such as mice and towards mammals like monkeys.

The method of "tissue clearing" has been used for decades to see through tissues, the new approach of Dr. Ertürk and colleagues can also make the bones transparent. It is built on a technique called 3D Imaging of Sovent-Cleared Organs or 3DISCO . The team's work has been published in Nature Methods and they call this approach the Ultimate DISCO (uDISCO) .

According to the team, this method allows exposing fluorescent proteins in certain tissues such as nerves and according to which images are displayed with complex details.

Simply understood, this method is similar to turning concrete walls into glass walls and it is easy to see the underlying pipes and cables.

Dr. Ertürk said, " Currently we can see the network of piping connections and easily identify if there is a disconnected point, similar to nerve cells disconnected in the brain. uDisco achieves transparency not only in a single wall but as an entire body ".

This process also causes the animal's body to shrink to 60% but we can repair the proteins in the cells on the spot. By filling the cells of animals with a protein floursecent , they can get an image of the complex structure of the tissue.

Dr. Ertürk's team is working with other research groups around the world to use this technique to study diabetes, stroke, inflammation and Alzheimer's.

He said the technique is also useful in stem cell technology , which will let researchers know whether cells have been integrated into the tissue or have moved to other parts of the body, where They can cause tumors.

He said, "I believe that applications from this method are unlimited. An extremely valuable application is to help scientists get a map of the human brain. This is the first time we have an extremely powerful tool, making the human brain transparent and shrinking the brain size to be compatible with the microscope thereby capturing the image for mapping. The brain nerve after death still shows fluorescence signal is still a big challenge for researchers " .