descSPIM: an affordable and easy-to-build light-sheet microscope optimized for tissue clearing techniques.

Otomo K, Omura T, Nozawa Y, Edwards SJ, Sato Y, Saito Y, Yagishita S, Uchida H, Watakabe Y, Naitou K, Yanai R, Sahara N, Takagi S, Katayama R, Iwata Y, Shiokawa T, Hayakawa Y, Otsuka K, Watanabe-Takano H, Haneda Y, Fukuhara S, Fujiwara M, Nii T, Meno C, Takeshita N, Yashiro K, Rosales Rocabado JM, Kaku M, Yamada T, Oishi Y, Koike H, Cheng Y, Sekine K, Koga J, Sugiyama K, Kimura K, Karube F, Kim H, Manabe I, Nemoto T, Tainaka K, Hamada A, Brismar H, Susaki EA

Nat Commun 15 (1) 4941 [2024-06-12; online 2024-06-12]

Despite widespread adoption of tissue clearing techniques in recent years, poor access to suitable light-sheet fluorescence microscopes remains a major obstacle for biomedical end-users. Here, we present descSPIM (desktop-equipped SPIM for cleared specimens), a low-cost ($20,000-50,000), low-expertise (one-day installation by a non-expert), yet practical do-it-yourself light-sheet microscope as a solution for this bottleneck. Even the most fundamental configuration of descSPIM enables multi-color imaging of whole mouse brains and a cancer cell line-derived xenograft tumor mass for the visualization of neurocircuitry, assessment of drug distribution, and pathological examination by false-colored hematoxylin and eosin staining in a three-dimensional manner. Academically open-sourced ( https://github.com/dbsb-juntendo/descSPIM ), descSPIM allows routine three-dimensional imaging of cleared samples in minutes. Thus, the dissemination of descSPIM will accelerate biomedical discoveries driven by tissue clearing technologies.

Integrated Microscopy Technologies Stockholm [Technology development]

PubMed 38866781

DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-49131-1

Crossref 10.1038/s41467-024-49131-1

pii: 10.1038/s41467-024-49131-1