Observing Bone Marrow through Transparent Bone
A collaboration between scientists at CalTech, Harvard and Amgen have developed a process called “Bone CLARITY” that allows optical analysis of bone marrow cells through transparent bone. As they describe it, “we developed a method of whole-bone optical clearing, using a series of reagents under continuous flow to delipidate and decalcify bone tissue. This process renders the entire bone transparent but does not affect endogenous fluorescence, making this compatible with reporter mice. Using light sheet fluorescence microscopy, the authors counted and mapped the number of fluorescently labeled osteoprogenitors within cleared mouse tibia, vertebral column, and femur bones treated with sclerostin antibody. With reduced variability compared to standard section analysis, this Bone CLARITY and computational analysis will be a useful tool for bone research. MORE
Image Credit: Science Translational Medicine, Greenbaum, Chan, et al; Gradinaru laboratory/Caltech