A new invention makes mice become transparent

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology, led by Viviana Gradinaru have developed, for the first time, a technique that can make a mouse body transparent. The method will facilitate research in biology and medicine, can be used, for example, to study the structure of the nervous system or how cancer spreads in the body.

Although there are ways to make transparent the various organs removed from the body, is the first time that researchers manage to make transparent the whole body of an animal, said Viviana Gradinaru, lead investigator and author of the article on the subject published in the scientific journal Cell.

Animals were euthanized, and the skin was removed and the rest of the body was treated with certain chemicals that make muscles and internal organs of mice - no bones - become transparent. Some of the substances used dissolve fat, others form a network at the microscopic level that maintains the position of the tissues in the body.

It takes about a week to establish such a transparent mouse. Researchers have created transparent rats whose production takes about two weeks because of higher waist. Subsequently, various dyes may be used to highlight specific laboratory anatomical details.