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Table 1 A hands-on comparison of tissue clearing protocols

From: Neuroscience in the third dimension: shedding new light on the brain with tissue clearing

 

Mouse Stages

Immuno-staining

Clearing

Endogenous Fluorescence

Tissue shrinkage

Clearing Performance

Cost

Toxicity

 

<E15

E15-P0

Adult

Before Clearing

After Clearing

     

Clearing Solutions

Imaging Medium

Solvents

 3DISCO

Entire embryo

Isolated organs

Isolated organs

1–3 wks

1 d

+++ (up to 50%)

+++

+

+++

+

 iDISCO+

Entire embryo

Entire embryo

Isolated organs

2 wks

2 d

+ (up to 10%)

+++

+

+++

+

 uDISCO

Entire animal

2 wks

3 d - 1 wk

Yes (up to 4 wks)

+++ (up to 40%)

+++

+

+++

+++

Reagents

 CLARITY

Entire embryo

Entire embryo

Isolated organs

1–3 wks

5 d - 2 m

Yes

*

++

+++

+++

 PACT

3 mm slice

1–2 wks

2 wks

Yes (up to 2 m)

*

++

++

+++

 PARS

Entire animal

10 d

4 d - 2 wks

Yes (up to 3 m)

*

++

++

+++

  1. A comparison of most used clearing protocols. – = no information/ not applicable; + = short/low; +++ = long/high; * = varies between mounting media