This project has received fundings from the European Union&#8217;s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952166 (REPAIR), MUR under the FISR program, project FISR2019_00320 and Regione Toscana, Bando Ricerca Salute 2018, PERCARE project.

All animal handling and procedures were performed in accordance with the guidelines from Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and conformed to the principles and regulations of the Italian Ministry of Health. The experimental protocol was approved by the Italian Ministry of Health (protocol number 647/2015-PR). All the animals were provided by ENVIGO, Italy. For these experiments, 5 male C57BL/6J mice of 6 months of age were used.
1. Solution preparation
<ol>
	<li>Prepare 4% Paraformaldehyde (PFA) in Phosphate-Buffered Saline (PBS) (pH 7.6) in a chemical hood. Store the 4% PFA aliquots at -20 &#176;C for several months.</li>
	<li>Prepare Hydrogel solution: Mix 4% Acrylamide, 0.05% Bis-acrylamide, 0.25% Initiatior AV-044 in 0.01 M PBS in a chemical hood. Keep the reagents and the solution on ice during the entire preparation. Store the hydrogel aliquots at -20 &#176;C for several months.</li>
	<li>Prepare Clearing solution: Mix 200 mM Boric acid, 4% Sodium Dodecyl-Sulfate (SDS) in deionized water; pH 8.6 in a chemical hood. Store the solution between 21-37 &#176;C to avoid SDS precipitation.</li>
	<li>Prepare fresh Tyrode solution on the day of the experiment: Add 10 mM Glucose, 10 mM HEPES, 113 mM NaCl, 1.2 mM MgCl2, and 4.7 mM KCl; titrate to pH 7.4 using 1 M NaOH.</li>
</ol>
2. Heart isolation
<ol>
	<li>Inject 0.1 mL of 500 I.U. Heparin subcutaneously 30 min before the heart isolation procedure.</li>
	<li>Fill a 30-mL syringe and three 6-cm Petri dishes with fresh Tyrode solution. Make a small rift (3-4 mm in depth) on the border of one of the Petri dishes and place it under a stereoscopic microscope.</li>
	<li>Fix a 1 mm-diameter cannula to the syringe and insert it in the rift of the Petri dish. Make sure there are no air bubbles in the syringe.</li>
	<li>Fill a 20-mL syringe with 4% PFA and keep it in the chemical hood. Prepare an empty Petri dish under the hood.</li>
	<li>Anesthetize the mouse with 3% Isoflurane/oxygen at a flow rate of 1.0 L/min and sacrifice it by cervical dislocation according to animal welfare rules in force.</li>
	<li>After the sacrifice, remove the fur over the chest and open the chest to have full access to the heart.</li>
	<li>Isolate the heart, immerse it in the Petri dish previously filled with 50 mL of Tyrode Solution. Use surgical scissors to cut the aorta immediately near the aortic arch to have the heart exposed.</li>
	<li>Transfer the heart under a stereoscopic microscope and carefully perform the cannulation. Do not insert the cannula too deep into the aorta (no more than 2 mm) to avoid tissue damage.</li>
	<li>Use a little clamp and a suture (size 5/0) to fix the heart to the cannula.</li>
	<li>Perfuse the heart with 30 mL of the Tyrode solution with a constant pressure of 10 mL/min to remove blood from the vessels.</li>
	<li>Detach the cannula from the syringe and place the heart in the Petri dish filled with Tyrode solution. Be careful not to have air bubbles in the cannula; otherwise, remove the air bubbles properly.</li>
	<li>Attach the 20-mL syringe filled with cold 4% PFA to the cannula and perfuse the heart at the same constant pressure.</li>
	<li>Incubate the heart in 10 mL of 4% PFA at 4 &#176;C overnight (O/N). To avoid tissue degradation, perform steps 2.6-2.13 in the shortest time possible.</li>
</ol>
3. Heart clearing
<ol>
	<li>The following day, wash the heart in 0.01 M PBS 3 times at 4 &#176;C for 15 min. 
	NOTE: After this step, the heart can be stored in PBS + 0.01% sodium azide (NaN3) at 4 &#176;C for several months.</li>
	<li>Incubate the heart in 30 mL of Hydrogel solution in shaking (15 rpm) at 4 &#176;C for 3 days.</li>
	<li>Degas the sample at room temperature using a dryer, a vacuum pump, and a tube system that connects the dryer to both the pump and a nitrogen pipeline.
	<ol>
		<li>Place the sample in the dryer and open the vial, keeping the cap on it.</li>
		<li>Close the dryer and remove the oxygen from the tube by opening the nitrogen pipeline.</li>
		<li>Turn on the vacuum&#160;pump to remove the oxygen from the dryer for 10 min.</li>
		<li>Turn off the pump and use the knob of the dryer to open the nitrogen pipeline. Once the pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure, carefully open the dryer and quickly close the vial.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Keep the heart in the degassed Hydrogel solution at 37 &#176;C for 3 h at rest.</li>
	<li>When the Hydrogel is properly polymerized and appears entirely gelatinous, carefully remove the heart from it and place it in the sample holder.</li>
	<li>Insert the sample holder with the heart in one of the clearing chambers and close it properly to avoid leaks of the clearing solution.</li>
	<li>Switch on the water bath where the clearing solution container is placed and the peristaltic pump to start the recirculation of the clearing solution.</li>
	<li>Change the clearing solution in the container once a week to speed up the clarification procedure.</li>
</ol>
4. Cellular membrane staining
<ol>
	<li>Once the heart appears completely clarified, remove it from the sample holder and wash it in 50 mL of warmed-up PBS for 24 h. Wash again in 50 mL of PBS + 1% of Triton-X (PBS-T 1x) for 24 h.</li>
	<li>Incubate the sample in 0.01 mg/mL Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA) - Alexa Fluor 633 in 3 mL of PBS-T 1x in shaking (50 rpm) at room temperature for 7 days.</li>
	<li>After the 7-day incubation, wash the sample in 50 mL of PBS-T 1x at room temperature in shaking for 24 h.</li>
	<li>Incubate the sample in 4% PFA for 15 min and then wash it 3 times in PBS for 5 min each. 
	NOTE: After this step, the heart can be stored in PBS + 0.01% NaN3 at 4 &#176;C for several months.</li>
	<li>Incubate the heart in increasing concentrations of 2,2&#8242;-Thiodiethanol (TDE) in 0.01 M PBS (20% and 47% TDE/PBS) for 8 h each, up to the final concentration of 68% TDE in 0.01 M PBS to provide the required refractive index (RI = 1.46). This is the RI matching medium (RI-medium) to acquire images16&#8288;.</li>
</ol>
5. Heart mounting and acquisition
NOTE: All the components of the optical system are listed in detail in the Table of Materials.
<ol>
	<li>Gently fill about 80% of the external cuvette (quartz, 45 mm &#215; 45 mm &#215; 42.5 mm) with the RI-medium. 
	NOTE: Here, it is possible to use different non-volatile solutions that guarantee a RI of 1.46.</li>
	<li>Gently fill the internal cuvette (quartz, 45 mm &#215; 12.5 mm &#215; 12.5 mm) with the same RI-medium.</li>
	<li>Immerse the sample inside the internal cuvette. The sample incubations described above allow the sample to remain stable inside the RI-medium without being held.</li>
	<li>Gently move the sample to the bottom of the cuvette using thin tweezers and arrange the heart with its longitudinal axis parallel to the cuvette&#39;s main axis to minimize the excitation light path across the tissue during the scanning.</li>
	<li>Gently fix the tailored plug above the internal cuvette with two screws.</li>
	<li>Mount the sample to the microscope stage using the magnets.</li>
	<li>Translate the vertical sample stage manually to immerse the internal cuvette into the external one.</li>
	<li>Turn on the excitation light source (wavelength of 638 nm), setting a low power (in the order of 3 mW).</li>
	<li>Move the sample using the motorized translator to illuminate an inner plane of the tissue.</li>
	<li>Turn on the imaging software (HCImageLive) and set the camera Trigger on External&#160;(light-sheet) mode to drive the acquisition trigger of the camera by the custom software controlling the entire setup.</li>
	<li>Enable Autosave in the Scan Settings panel and set the output folder where the images need to be saved.</li>
	<li>Manually adjust the sample position in the XY plane with the linear translators to move the sample to the center of the FoV of the camera sensor.</li>
	<li>Move the sample along the Z-axis using the linear motorized translator to identify heart borders for tomographic reconstruction.</li>
	<li>Increase the laser power to ~20 mW, ready for the imaging session.</li>
	<li>Start the tomographic acquisition, click the Start button in the Sequence Panel&#160;of the imaging software, and at the same time move the sample along the Z-axis at the constant velocity of 6 &#181;m/s using the motorized translator.</li>
</ol>

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Nothing to disclosure.

In this work, a successful approach to clear, stain, and image a whole mouse heart at high resolution was introduced. First, a tissue transformation protocol (CLARITY) was optimized and performed, slightly modified for its application on the cardiac tissue. Indeed, to obtain an efficient reconstruction in 3D of a whole heart, it is essential to prevent the phenomenon of light scattering. The CLARITY methodology allows us to obtain a highly transparent intact heart, but it requires long incubation times when performed pas...

Structural remodeling associated with cardiac diseases can affect electrical conduction and introduce electromechanical dysfunctions of the organ1,2. Current approaches used to predict functional alterations commonly employ MRI and DT-MRI to obtain an overall reconstruction of fibrosis deposition, vascular tree, and fiber distribution of the heart, and they are used to model preferential action potential propagation (APP) paths across the organ3,4. These strategies can provide a beautiful overview of the heart organization. However, their spatial resolution is insufficient to investigate the impact of structural remodeling on cardiac function at the cellular level.
Placing this framework at a different order of magnitude, where single cells can play individual roles on action potential propagation, is challenging. The main limitation is the inefficiency of standard imaging methods to perform high-resolution imaging (micrometric resolution) in massive (centimeter-sized) tissues. In fact, imaging biological tissues in 3D at high resolution is very complicated due to tissue opaqueness. The most common approach to perform 3D reconstructions in entire organs is to prepare thin sections. However, precise sectioning, assembling, and imaging require significant effort and time. An alternative approach that does not demand cutting the sample is to generate a transparent tissue. During the last years, several methodologies for clarifying tissues have been proposed5,6,7,8&#8288;. The challenge to produce massive, transparent, and fluorescently-labeled tissues has been recently achieved by developing true tissue transformation approaches (CLARITY9&#8288;, SHIELD10&#8288;). In particular, the CLARITY method is based on the transformation of an intact tissue into a nanoporous, hydrogel-hybridized, lipid-free form that enables to confer high transparency by the selective removal of membrane lipid bilayers. Notably, this method has been found successful also in cardiac preparation11,12,13,14&#8288;. However, since the heart is too fragile to be suitable for an active clearing, it must be cleared using the passive approach, which requires a long time to confer complete transparency.
In combination with advanced imaging techniques like light-sheet microscopy, CLARITY has the potential to image 3D massive heart tissues at micrometric resolution. In light-sheet microscopy, the illumination of the sample is performed with a thin sheet of light confined in the focal plane of the detection objective. The fluorescence emission is collected along an axis perpendicular to the illumination plane15. The detection architecture is similar to widefield microscopy, making the acquisition much faster than laser scanning microscopes. Moving the sample through the light sheet permits obtaining a complete tomography of big specimens, up to centimeter-sized samples. However, due to the intrinsic properties of the Gaussian beam, it is possible to obtain a very thin (of the order of a few microns) light-sheet only for a limited spatial extension, thus drastically limiting the field of view (FoV). Recently, a novel excitation scheme has been introduced to overcome this limitation and applied for brain imaging, allowing 3d reconstructions with isotropic resolution16.
In this paper, a passive clearing approach is presented, enabling a significant reduction of the clearing timing needed by the CLARITY protocol. The methodological framework described here allows reconstructing a whole mouse heart with micrometric resolution in a single tomographic scan with an acquisition time in the order of minutes.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>2-2&#8217; Thiodiethanol</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>166782</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Acrylamide</td>
			<td>Bio-Rad</td>
			<td>61-0140</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>AV-044 Initiator</td>
			<td>Wako Chemicals</td>
			<td>AVP5874</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Bis-Acrylamide</td>
			<td>Bio-Rad</td>
			<td>161-042</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Boric Acid</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>B7901</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Camera</td>
			<td>Hamamatsu</td>
			<td>Orca flash 4.0 v3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Camera software</td>
			<td>Hamamatsu</td>
			<td>HC Image</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Collimating lens</td>
			<td>Thorlabs</td>
			<td>AC254-050-A-ML</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Detection arm</td>
			<td>Integrated optics</td>
			<td>0638L-15A-NI-PT-NF</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Excitation lens</td>
			<td>Nikon</td>
			<td>91863</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Extera&#236;nal quartz cuvette</td>
			<td>Portmann Instruments</td>
			<td>UQ-753</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fold mirrors</td>
			<td>Thorlabs</td>
			<td>BBE1-E02</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Galvanometric mirror</td>
			<td>Thorlabs</td>
			<td>GVS211/M</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glucose</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>G8270</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HCImage Live</td>
			<td>Hamamatsu</td>
			<td>4.6.1.19</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEPES</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>H3375</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Internal quartz cuvette</td>
			<td>Portmann Instruments</td>
			<td>UQ-204</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>KCl</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>P4504</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Laser source</td>
			<td>Integrated Optics</td>
			<td>0638L-15A-NI-PT-NF</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Long-pass filter</td>
			<td>Thorlabs</td>
			<td>FELH0650</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Magnetic base</td>
			<td>Thorlabs</td>
			<td>KB25/M</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MgCl2</td>
			<td>Chem-Lab</td>
			<td>CI-1316-0250</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Motorized traslator</td>
			<td>Physisk Instrument</td>
			<td>M-122.2DD</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>NaCl</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>59888</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Objective</td>
			<td>Thorlabs</td>
			<td>TL2X-SAP</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Paraformaldehyde</td>
			<td>Agar Scientific</td>
			<td>R1018</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Phosphate Buffer Solution</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>P4417</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Polycap AS</td>
			<td>Whatman</td>
			<td>2606T</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Relay lens</td>
			<td>Qioptiq</td>
			<td>G063200000</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>L3771</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tube lens</td>
			<td>Thorlabs</td>
			<td>ACT508-200-A-ML</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tunable lens</td>
			<td>Optotune</td>
			<td>EL-16-40-TC-VIS-5D-1-C</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Vacuum pump</td>
			<td>KNF Neuberger Inc</td>
			<td>N86KT.18</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Water bath</td>
			<td>Memmert</td>
			<td>WTB</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

mesoscopic optical imaging of whole mouse heart

Both genetic and non-genetic cardiac diseases can cause severe remodeling processes in the heart. Structural remodeling, such as collagen deposition (fibrosis) and cellular misalignment, can affect electrical conduction, introduce electromechanical dysfunctions and, eventually, lead to arrhythmia. Current predictive models of these functional alterations are based on non-integrated and low-resolution structural information. Placing this framework on a different order of magnitude is challenging due to the inefficacy of standard imaging methods in performing high-resolution imaging in massive tissue. In this work, we describe a methodological framework that allows imaging of whole mouse hearts with micrometric resolution. The achievement of this goal has required a technological effort where advances in tissue transformation and imaging methods have been combined. First, we describe an optimized CLARITY protocol capable of transforming an intact heart into a nanoporous, hydrogel-hybridized, lipid-free form that allows high transparency and deep staining. Then, a fluorescence light-sheet microscope able to rapidly acquire images of a mesoscopic field of view (mm-scale) with the micron-scale resolution is described. Following the mesoSPIM project, the conceived microscope allows the reconstruction of the whole mouse heart with micrometric resolution in a single tomographic scan. We believe that this methodological framework will allow clarifying the involvement of the cytoarchitecture disarray in the electrical dysfunctions and pave the way for a comprehensive model that considers both the functional and structural data, thus enabling a unified investigation of the structural causes that lead to electrical and mechanical alterations after the tissue remodeling.

The developed passive clearing setup allows to obtain a cleared adult mouse heart (with a dimension of the order 10 mm x 6 mm x 6 mm) in about 3 months. All the components of the setup are mounted as shown in Figure 1. The negligible temperature gradient between each clearing chamber (of the order of 3&#176;C) allows maintaining the temperature in a proper range across all chambers.
<img alt="Figure 1" class="xfigimg" src="/files/f...

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Mesoscopic Optical Imaging of Whole Mouse Heart

We report a method for mesoscopic reconstruction of the whole mouse heart by combining new advancements in tissue transformation and staining with the development of an axially scanned light-sheet microscope.

Both genetic and non-genetic cardiac diseases can cause severe remodeling processes in the heart. Structural remodeling, such as collagen deposition ...

mesoscopic-optical-imaging-of-whole-mouse-heart

Research

JoVE Journal

Biology

2.0K Views.  European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy. We report a method for mesoscopic reconstruction of the whole mouse heart by combining new advancements in tissue transformation and staining with the development of an axially scanned light-sheet microscope.

Video: Mesoscopic Optical Imaging of Whole Mouse Heart

Labeling Stem Cells with Fluorescent Dyes for non-invasive Detection with Optical Imaging

Optical imaging (OI) is an easy, fast and inexpensive tool for in vivo monitoring of new stem cell based therapies. The technique is based on ex vivo labeling of stem cells with a fluorescent dye, subsequent intravenous injection of the labeled cells and visualization of their accumulation in specific target organs or pathologies. The presented technique demonstrates how we label human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) by simple incubation with the lipophilic fluorescent dye DiD (C67H103CIN2O3S) and how we label human embryonic stem cells (hESC) with the FDA approved fluorescent dye Indocyanine Green (ICG). The uptake mechanism is via adherence and diffusion of the lypophilic dye across the phospholipid cell membrane bilayer. The labeling efficiency is usually improved if the cells are incubated with the dye in serum-free media as opposed to incubation in serum-containing media. Furthermore, the addition of the transfection agent Protamine Sulfate significantly improves contrast agent uptake.

This video shows techniques for labeling of human embryonic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells with fluorescent dyes. This technique can be used for an in vivo tracking of transplanted stem cells with optical imaging and for histopathological correlations with fluorescence microscopy.

Optical imaging (OI) is an easy, fast and inexpensive tool for in vivo monitoring of new stem cell based therapies. The technique is based on ex vivo ...

Proper Care and Cleaning of the Microscope

Keeping the microscope optics clean is important for high-quality imaging. Dust, fingerprints, excess immersion oil, or mounting medium on or in a microscope causes reduction in contrast and resolution. DIC is especially sensitive to contamination and scratches on the lens surfaces. This protocol details the procedure for keeping the microscope clean.

Keeping the microscope optics clean is important for high-quality imaging. Dust, fingerprints, excess immersion oil, or mounting medium on or in a microscope causes reduction in contrast and resolution. DIC is especially sensitive to contamination and scratches on the lens surfaces. This protocol details the procedure for keeping the microscope clean.

Keeping the microscope optics clean is important for high-quality imaging. Dust, fingerprints, excess immersion oil, or mounting medium on or in a ...

Major Components of the Light Microscope

The light microscope is a basic tool for the cell biologist, who should have a thorough understanding of how it works, how it should be aligned for different applications, and how it should be maintained as required to obtain maximum image-forming capacity and resolution. The components of the microscope are described in detail here.

The light microscope is a basic tool for the cell biologist, who should have a thorough understanding of how it works, how it should be aligned for different applications, and how it should be maintained as required to obtain maximum image-forming capacity and resolution. The components of the microscope are described in detail here.

The light microscope is a basic tool for the cell biologist, who should have a thorough understanding of how it works, how it should be aligned for ...

Phase Contrast and Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy

Phase-contrast microscopy is often used to produce contrast for transparent, non light-absorbing, biological specimens. The technique was discovered by Zernike, in 1942, who received the Nobel prize for his achievement. DIC microscopy, introduced in the late 1960s, has been popular in biomedical research because it highlights edges of specimen structural detail, provides high-resolution optical sections of thick specimens including tissue cells, eggs, and embryos and does not suffer from the  phase halos  typical of phase-contrast images. This protocol highlights the principles and practical applications of these microscopy techniques.

Phase Contrast and Differential Interference Contrast DIC Microscopy

This protocol highlights the principles and practical applications of Phase and Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy

Phase-contrast microscopy is often used to produce contrast for transparent, non light-absorbing, biological specimens. The technique was discovered by ...

Born Normalization for Fluorescence Optical Projection Tomography for Whole Heart Imaging

Optical projection tomography is a three-dimensional imaging technique that has been recently introduced as an imaging tool primarily in developmental biology and gene expression studies. The technique renders biological sample optically transparent by first dehydrating them and then placing in a mixture of benzyl alcohol and benzyl benzoate in a 2:1 ratio (BABB or Murray s Clear solution). The technique renders biological samples optically transparent by first dehydrating them in graded ethanol solutions then placing them in a mixture of benzyl alcohol and benzyl benzoate in a 2:1 ratio (BABB or Murray s Clear solution) to clear. After the clearing process the scattering contribution in the sample can be greatly reduced and made almost negligible while the absorption contribution cannot be eliminated completely. When trying to reconstruct the fluorescence distribution within the sample under investigation, this contribution affects the reconstructions and leads, inevitably, to image artifacts and quantification errors.. While absorption could be reduced further with a permanence of weeks or months in the clearing media, this will lead to progressive loss of fluorescence and to an unrealistically long sample processing time. This is true when reconstructing both exogenous contrast agents (molecular contrast agents) as well as endogenous contrast (e.g. reconstructions of genetically expressed fluorescent proteins).

We suggest a Born normalized approach for Optical Projection Tomography (BnOPT) that accounts for the absorption properties of imaged samples to obtain accurate and quantitative fluorescence tomographic reconstructions. We use the proposed algorithm to reconstruct the fluorescence molecular probe distribution within small animal organs.

Optical projection tomography is a three-dimensional imaging technique that has been recently introduced as an imaging tool primarily in developmental ...

Semi-automated Optical Heartbeat Analysis of Small Hearts

We have developed a method for analyzing high speed optical recordings from Drosophila, zebrafish and embryonic mouse hearts (Fink, et. al., 2009). Our Semi-automatic Optical Heartbeat Analysis (SOHA) uses a novel movement detection algorithm that is able to detect cardiac movements associated with individual contractile and relaxation events. The program provides a host of physiologically relevant readouts including systolic and diastolic intervals, heart rate, as well as qualitative and quantitative measures of heartbeat arrhythmicity. The program also calculates heart diameter measurements during both diastole and systole from which fractional shortening and fractional area changes are calculated. Output is provided as a digital file compatible with most spreadsheet programs. Measurements are made for every heartbeat in a record increasing the statistical power of the output. We demonstrate each of the steps where user input is required and show the application of our methodology to the analysis of heart function in all three genetically tractable heart models.

We have developed a Semi-automated Optical Heartbeat Analysis method (SOHA) for analyzing high speed optical recordings from Drosophila, zebrafish and embryonic mouse hearts. We demonstrate the application of our methodology to the analysis of heart function in fruit fly and embryonic mouse hearts.

We have developed a method for analyzing high speed optical recordings from Drosophila, zebrafish and embryonic mouse hearts (Fink, et. al., 2009). Our ...

Mesoscopic Fluorescence Tomography for In-vivo Imaging of Developing Drosophila

Visualizing developing organ formation as well as progession and treatment of disease often heavily relies on the ability to optically interrogate molecular and functional changes in intact living organisms. Most existing optical imaging methods are inadequate for imaging at dimensions that lie between the penetration limits of modern optical microscopy (0.5-1mm) and the diffusion-imposed limits of optical macroscopy (&gt;1cm) [1]. Thus, many important model organisms, e.g. insects, animal embryos or small animal extremities, remain inaccessible for in-vivo optical imaging. 
Although there is increasing interest towards the development of nanometer-resolution optical imaging methods, there have not been many successful efforts in improving the imaging penetration depth. The ability to perform in-vivo imaging beyond microscopy limits is in fact met with the difficulties associated with photon scattering present in tissues. Recent efforts to image entire embryos for example [2,3] require special chemical treatment of the specimen, to clear them from scattering, a procedure that makes them suitable only for post-mortem imaging. These methods however evidence the need for imaging larger specimens than the ones usually allowed by two-photon or confocal microscopy, especially in developmental biology and in drug discovery.
We have developed a new optical imaging technique named Mesoscopic Fluorescence Tomography [4], which appropriate for non-invasive in-vivo imaging at dimensions of 1mm-5mm. The method exchanges resolution for penetration depth, but offers unprecedented tomographic imaging performance and it has been developed to add time as a new dimension in developmental biology observations (and possibly other areas of biological research) by imparting the ability to image the evolution of fluorescence-tagged responses over time. As such it can accelerate studies of morphological or functional dependencies on gene mutations or external stimuli, and can importantly, capture the complete picture of development or tissue function by allowing longitudinal time-lapse visualization of the same, developing organism.
The technique utilizes a modified laboratory microscope and multi-projection illumination to collect data at 360-degree projections. It applies the Fermi simplification to Fokker-Plank solution of the photon transport equation, combined with geometrical optics principles in order to build a realistic inversion scheme suitable for mesoscopic range. This allows in-vivo whole-body visualization of non-transparent three-dimensional structures in samples up to several millimeters in size.
We have demonstrated the in-vivo performance of the technique by imaging three-dimensional structures of developing Drosophila tissues in-vivo and by following the morphogenesis of the wings in the opaque Drosophila pupae in real time over six consecutive hours.

Mesoscopic Fluorescence Tomography for In-vivo Imaging of Developing Drosophila

Mesoscopic fluorescence tomography operates beyond the penetration limits of tissue-sectioning fluorescence microscopy. The technique is based on multi-projection illumination and a photon transport description. We demonstrate in-vivo whole-body 3D visualization of the morphogenesis of GFP-expressing wing imaginal discs in Drosophila melanogaster.

Visualizing  developing organ formation as well as progession and treatment of disease often  heavily relies on the ability to optically interrogate ...

In vivo Imaging and Therapeutic Treatments in an Orthotopic Mouse Model of Ovarian Cancer

Human cancer and response to therapy is better represented in orthotopic animal models. This paper describes the development of an orthotopic mouse model of ovarian cancer, treatment of cancer via oral delivery of drugs, and monitoring of tumor cell behavior in response to drug treatment in real time using in vivo imaging system. In this orthotopic model, ovarian tumor cells expressing luciferase are applied topically by injecting them directly into the mouse bursa where each ovary is enclosed. Upon injection of D-luciferin, a substrate of firefly luciferase, luciferase-expressing cells generate bioluminescence signals. This signal is detected by the in vivo imaging system and allows for a non-invasive means of monitoring tumor growth, distribution, and regression in individual animals. Drug administration via oral gavage allows for a maximum dosing volume of 10 mL/kg body weight to be delivered directly to the stomach and closely resembles delivery of drugs in clinical treatments. Therefore, techniques described here, development of an orthotopic mouse model of ovarian cancer, oral delivery of drugs, and in vivo imaging, are useful for better understanding of human ovarian cancer and treatment and will improve targeting this disease.

In vivo Imaging and Therapeutic Treatments in an Orthotopic Mouse Model of Ovarian Cancer

Orthotopic animal models of ovarian cancer replicate better human disease and therefore enhance our understanding of cancer progression and tumor response to therapy. A mouse model receives an intrabursal injection of luciferase-expressing ovarian tumor cells. Treatment is administered via oral gavage. Tumor growth is monitored by in vivo imaging system.

Human cancer and response to therapy is better represented in orthotopic animal models.  This paper describes the development of an orthotopic mouse model ...

Whole-mount Immunohistochemical Analysis for Embryonic Limb Skin Vasculature: a Model System to Study Vascular Branching Morphogenesis in Embryo

Whole-mount immunohistochemical analysis for imaging the entire vasculature is pivotal for understanding the cellular mechanisms of branching morphogenesis. We have developed the limb skin vasculature model to study vascular development in which a pre-existing primitive capillary plexus is reorganized into a hierarchically branched vascular network. Whole-mount confocal microscopy with multiple labelling allows for robust imaging of intact blood vessels as well as their cellular components including endothelial cells, pericytes and smooth muscle cells, using specific fluorescent markers. Advances in this limb skin vasculature model with genetic studies have improved understanding molecular mechanisms of vascular development and patterning. The limb skin vasculature model has been used to study how peripheral nerves provide a spatial template for the differentiation and patterning of arteries. This video article describes a simple and robust protocol to stain intact blood vessels with vascular specific antibodies and fluorescent secondary antibodies, which is applicable for vascularized embryonic organs where we are able to follow the process of vascular development.

We introduce a whole-mount immunohistochemistry and laser scanning confocal microscopy with multiple labelling for analyzing intricate vascular network formation in mouse embryonic limb skin.

Whole-mount immunohistochemical analysis for imaging the entire vasculature is pivotal for understanding the cellular mechanisms of branching ...

A Novel Ex vivo Culture Method for the Embryonic Mouse Heart

Developmental studies in the mouse are hampered by the inaccessibility of the embryo during gestation. Thus, protocols to isolate and culture individual organs of interest are essential to provide a method of both visualizing changes in development and allowing novel treatment strategies. To promote the long-term culture of the embryonic heart at late stages of gestation, we developed a protocol in which the excised heart is cultured in a semi-solid, dilute Matrigel. This substrate provides enough support to maintain the three-dimensional structure but is flexible enough to allow continued contraction. In brief, hearts are excised from the embryo and placed in a mixture of cold Matrigel diluted 1:1 with growth medium. After the diluted Matrigel solidifies, growth medium is added to the culture dish. Hearts excised as late as embryonic day 16.5 were viable for four days post-dissection. Analysis of the coronary plexus shows that this method does not disrupt coronary vascular development. Thus, we present a novel method for long-term culture of embryonic hearts.

A Novel Ex vivo Culture Method for the Embryonic Mouse Heart

Developmental studies in the mouse are hampered by the inaccessibility of the embryo during gestation. To promote the long-term culture of the embryonic heart at late stages of gestation, we developed a protocol in which the excised heart is cultured in a semi-solid, dilute Matrigel.

Developmental studies in the mouse are hampered  by the inaccessibility of the embryo during gestation. Thus, protocols to  isolate and culture individual ...