Immunostaining of Whole-Mount Retinas with the CLARITY Tissue Clearing Method

Summary

Here we present a protocol to adapt the CLARITY method of the brain tissues for whole-mount retinas to improve the quality of standard immunohistochemical staining and high-resolution imaging of retinal neurons and their subcellular structures.

Abstract

The tissue hydrogel delipidation method (CLARITY), originally developed by the Deisseroth laboratory, has been modified and widely used for immunostaining and imaging of thick brain samples. However, this advanced technology has not yet been used for whole-mount retinas. Although the retina is partially transparent, its thickness of approximately 200 µm (in mice) still limits the penetration of antibodies into the deep tissue as well as reducing light penetration for high-resolution imaging. Here, we adapted the CLARITY method for whole-mount mouse retinas by polymerizing them with an acrylamide monomer to form a nanoporous hydrogel and then clearing them in sodium dodecyl sulfate to minimize protein loss and avoid tissue damage. CLARITY-processed retinas were immunostained with antibodies for retinal neurons, glial cells, and synaptic proteins, mounted in a refractive index matching solution, and imaged. Our data demonstrate that CLARITY can improve the quality of standard immunohistochemical staining and imaging for retinal neurons and glial cells in whole-mount preparation. For instance, 3D resolution of fine axon-like and dendritic structures of dopaminergic amacrine cells were much improved by CLARITY. Compared to non-processed whole-mount retinas, CLARITY can reveal immunostaining for synaptic proteins such as postsynaptic density protein 95. Our results show that CLARITY renders the retina more optically transparent after the removal of lipids and preserves fine structures of retinal neurons and their proteins, which can be routinely used for obtaining high-resolution imaging of retinal neurons and their subcellular structures in whole-mount preparation.

Introduction

The vertebrate retina is perhaps the most accessible part of the central nervous system (CNS), and it serves as an excellent model for studying the development, structure, and function of the brain. Five classes of neurons in the retina are distributed in three nuclear layers separated by two plexiform layers. The outer nuclear layer (ONL) consists of classical photoreceptors (rods and cones) that convert light into electrical signals. Electrical signals are processed by neurons in the inner nuclear layer (INL), including bipolar, horizontal, and amacrine cells, and then transmitted to retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in the ganglion cell layer (GCL). RGCs are the output....

Protocol

Mouse care and all experimental procedures were conducted according to the National Institutes of Health guidelines for laboratory animals and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees at Oakland University (protocol no. 18071).

NOTE: Names of the solutions and their compositions are listed in Table 1.

1. Tissue preparation

1. Euthanize the mouse with an overdose of CO₂, followed by cervical dislocation.
2. Enucleate the eyes with curved forceps and transfer them to a small petri dish with 0.1 M PBS (Table 1). Under a dissection ....

Discussion

Modification of the CLARITY protocol for whole-mount retinas.
We have simplified the CLARITY protocol to achieve adequate polymerization without the need for a vacuum evacuation or desiccation chamber, as is used in most previous studies^7,9,11. The polymerization process is inhibited by oxygen, requiring that the sample be isolated from air during the polymerization step of the protocol. However, rather th.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
16% Paraformaldehyde	Electron Microscopy Sciences	15710	Fixative
Acrylamide	Fisher Biotech	BP170	Hydrogel monomer
Axio Imager.Z2	Zeiss		Fluorscence microscope
BSA	Fisher Scientific	BP1600	Blocking agent
Eclipse Ti	Nikon Instruments		Scanning confocal microscope
KCl	VWR	BDH0258	Buffer component
KH2PO4	Sigma	P5655	Buffer component
Na2HPO4	Sigma Aldrich	S9763	Buffer component
NaCl	Sigma Aldrich	S7653	Buffer component
NaH2PO4	Sigma Aldrich	S0751	Buffer component
NaN3	Sigma Aldrich	S2002	Bacteriostatic preservative
NDS	Aurion	900.122	Blocking agent
NIS Elements AR	Nikon		Image analysis software
SDS	BioRad	1610301	Delipidation agent
Sorbitol	Sigma Aldrich	51876	Buffer component
Triton-X-100	Sigma	T8787	Surfactant
Tween-20	Fisher Scientific	BP337	Surfactant
VA-044	Wako Chemicals	011-19365	Thermal initiator