Chinese scientists use ‘ionic glass’ to make organs transparent without slicing, unlocking 3D ‘X-ray vision’ of the human body
Scientists believe that the ionic glass method can overcome long -term obstacles in complex tissues such as neurons, blood vessels and cardiac nets to overcome long -term obstacles to allow all organs to visualize all organs in three dimensions.
Traditionally, in order to examine something in detail, such as the brain or heart, scientists had to examine the organ in slices and then examine it under a microscope. This destroys the solid structure and makes it difficult to understand how all parts are connected to 3D.
The new “ionic glass” method makes the organ transparent while keeping the original shape intact.
Why is transparency important?
Scientists tried to look at all organs without cutting them. However, biological tissues naturally used to emphasize opaque and block light, cells and molecules.
Existing “Cleaning” methods can make the tissue transparent, but usually may disrupt the samples, which causes organs to expand, shrink or lose sensitive details.
Frozen methods carry the risk of ice crystal damage. This is unlimited by researchers’ ability to read the organs.
‘Ionic glass’ solution
Under the leadership of the University of Tsinghua and Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Shanxi Medical University, Beijing Qingzhun Medical Technology Company and Fudan University, including researchers, the Chinese team returned to special solvents under the boiling point of the water.
When the organs are treated with these fluids, they enter a “ionic glassy state .. In this situation:
- While maintaining their original shapes and micro structures, tissues become transparent.
- Samples can be stored cold for a long time without ice damage.
- Fluorescent paints shine 2-30 times brighter, even make mild biological signals visible.
What did the researchers find
Using this method, the team successfully examined the micro-bonding of human neurons and even defined fine differences in impulse control compared to non-human brains.
Since the process increases the visibility of rare proteins and neural roads, it can help create extremely accurate 3D maps of all organs that researchers have been looking for for a long time but struggling to achieve.
Potential Applications
According to the South China Morning Post, university progress could be a game changer and will work with it on sensitive medicine and smart diagnosis.
The social media page of the University of Tsinghua described its techniques as a sız vision of X-ray for tissues ”when combined with a built-in system to manage techniques as an example, painting painting and 3D reconstruction.
