TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ertürk, Ali
AU  - Mauch, Christoph P
AU  - Hellal, Farida
AU  - Förstner, Friedrich
AU  - Keck, Tara
AU  - Becker, Klaus
AU  - Jährling, Nina
AU  - Steffens, Heinz
AU  - Richter, Melanie
AU  - Hübener, Mark
AU  - Kramer, Edgar
AU  - Kirchhoff, Frank
AU  - Dodt, Hans Ulrich
AU  - Bradke, Frank
TI  - Three-dimensional imaging of the unsectioned adult spinal cord to assess axon regeneration and glial responses after injury.
JO  - Nature medicine
VL  - 18
IS  - 1
SN  - 1078-8956
CY  - New York, NY
PB  - Nature America Inc.
M1  - DZNE-2020-02729
SP  - 166 - 171
PY  - 2012
AB  - Studying regeneration in the central nervous system (CNS) is hampered by current histological and imaging techniques because they provide only partial information about axonal and glial reactions. Here we developed a tetrahydrofuran-based clearing procedure that renders fixed and unsectioned adult CNS tissue transparent and fully penetrable for optical imaging. In large spinal cord segments, we imaged fluorescently labeled cells by 'ultramicroscopy' and two-photon microscopy without the need for histological sectioning. We found that more than a year after injury growth-competent axons regenerated abundantly through the injury site. A few growth-incompetent axons could also regenerate when they bypassed the lesion. Moreover, we accurately determined quantitative changes of glial cells after spinal cord injury. Thus, clearing CNS tissue enables an unambiguous evaluation of axon regeneration and glial reactions. Our clearing procedure also renders other organs transparent, which makes this approach useful for a large number of preclinical paradigms.
KW  - Animals
KW  - Axons: physiology
KW  - Axons: ultrastructure
KW  - Furans: chemistry
KW  - Imaging, Three-Dimensional: methods
KW  - Mice
KW  - Microglia: physiology
KW  - Microglia: ultrastructure
KW  - Microscopy, Confocal: methods
KW  - Spinal Cord Injuries: physiopathology
KW  - Spinal Cord Regeneration
KW  - Furans (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - tetrahydrofuran (NLM Chemicals)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:22198277
DO  - DOI:10.1038/nm.2600
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/136407
ER  -