Adipo-Clear: A Tissue Clearing Method for Three-Dimensional Imaging of Adipose Tissue
Summary
Due to the high lipid content, adipose tissue has been challenging to visualize using traditional histological methods. Adipo-Clear is a tissue clearing technique that allows robust labeling and high-resolution volumetric fluorescent imaging of adipose tissue. Here, we describe the methods for sample preparation, pretreatment, staining, clearing, and mounting for imaging.
Abstract
Adipose tissue plays a central role in energy homeostasis and thermoregulation. It is composed of different types of adipocytes, as well as adipocyte precursors, immune cells, fibroblasts, blood vessels, and nerve projections. Although the molecular control of cell type specification and how these cells interact have been increasingly delineated, a more comprehensive understanding of these adipose-resident cells can be achieved by visualizing their distribution and architecture throughout the whole tissue. Existing immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence approaches to analyze adipose histology rely on thin paraffin-embedded sections. However, thin sections capture only a small portion of tissue; as a result, the conclusions can be biased by what portion of tissue is analyzed. We have therefore developed an adipose tissue clearing technique, Adipo-Clear, to permit comprehensive three-dimensional visualization of molecular and cellular patterns in whole adipose tissues. Adipo-Clear was adapted from iDISCO/iDISCO+, with specific modifications made to completely remove the lipid stored in the tissue while preserving native tissue morphology. In combination with light-sheet fluorescence microscopy, we demonstrate here the use of the Adipo-Clear method to obtain high-resolution volumetric images of an entire adipose tissue.
Introduction
Until recently, adipose tissue was conceived of as an amorphous collection of fat cells. Over the past few decades, our understanding has grown more sophisticated, with fat now recognized to be a complex organ containing different types of adipocytes, as well as adipocyte precursors, immune cells, fibroblasts, the vasculature, and nerve projections. Interactions among these adipose-resident cells have pronounced effects on adipose tissue and organismal physiology and pathophysiology1. Although emerging studies have unraveled important molecular mechanisms underlying certain interactions, a more comprehensive understanding requires reliable structural profiling of the entire tissue in three dimensions (3D).
Our current knowledge of adipose tissue morphology is largely based on histological analysis of thin sections (5 μm) with relatively high-magnification imaging (more than 10X)2,3. However, this approach has several significant limitations. First, intricate filamentous structures such as sympathetic nerves and the vasculature, which are known to play important roles in adipose function4,5,6,7, are difficult to evaluate through thin sections. Second, due to its seemingly amorphous shape and the lack of representative structural units to focus on, it is difficult to appreciate adipose tissue structures based only on section staining. Third, adipose tissue has a very high lipid content, creating challenges in obtaining consistent serial sections that are suitable for 3D anatomical reconstruction, a conventional method used to study whole brain morphology8. Given these factors, there is a great need for a whole-mount approach that can provide 3D visualization of an entire adipose depot while still achieving cellular resolution.
3D volumetric imaging of an entire organ is challenging due to the obscuring effects of light scatter. A major source of light scatter in biological tissues comes from lipid-aqueous interfaces. Although the efforts to eliminate scatter by removing lipids have been ongoing for over a century, there have been a large number of recent innovations9. One such newly developed tissue-clearing method is immunolabeling-enabled 3D imaging of solvent-cleared organs (iDISCO/iDISCO+)10,11. However, adipose tissue presents a particular challenge given its high level of lipids, and therefore, additional modifications to the iDISCO/iDISCO+ protocol are required to fully extract the lipids while protecting the tissue from collapsing. The modified protocol we have developed, now called Adipo-Clear, employs methanol/dichloromethane-based delipidation of adipose tissue to achieve optimal transparency suitable for high-resolution volumetric imaging12. Because the delipidation step largely quenches endogenously expressed fluorescent proteins such as GFP and RFP, visualization of such proteins must be achieved by immunolabeling. Overall, this simple and robust protocol can be applied to study tissue-level organization of adipose-resident cells, lineage tracing of adipocyte progenitor cells, and adipose morphogenesis during development.
Protocol
Representative Results
Discussion
Adipo-Clear is a straightforward and robust method for clearing adipose tissue, which can be easily performed in a regular lab setup. In comparison to other solvent-based clearing methods such as iDISCO/iDISCO+10,11,12, Adipo-Clear is particularly optimized for clearing adipose tissue and other tissue with high fat content. The delipidation step completely removes lipids from adipose, and therefore facilitates immunolabeling thr…
Disclosures
The authors have nothing to disclose.
Acknowledgements
We thank Christina Pyrgaki, Tao Tong, and Alison North from the Bioimaging Resource Center at the Rockefeller University for assistance and support. We also thank Xiphias Ge Zhu for movie editing. This work was supported by the Human Frontier Science Program Organization (PC).
Materials
| 1x phosphate buffered saline | Corning | 21-040-CV | |
| Paraformaldehyde | Sigma Aldrich | P6148-1KG | |
| Methanol | Fisher Scientific | A412SK-4 | |
| Triton X-100 | Sigma Aldrich | X100-500ML | |
| Tween 20 | Sigma Aldrich | P2287-500ML | |
| Heparin | Sigma Aldrich | H3393-100KU | |
| Dichloromethane | Sigma Aldrich | 270991 | |
| Hydrogen peroxide 30% | Fisher Scientific | 325-100 | |
| Benzyl ether | Sigma Aldrich | 108014 | |
| Agarose | Invitrogen | 16500500 | |
| Sodium azide | Sigma Aldrich | 71289-5G | |
| Glycine | Fisher Scientific | BP381-1 | |
| Rabbit polyclonal anti-Tyrosine Hydroxylase | Millipore | AB152 | 1:200 dilution |
| Goat polyclonal anti-CD31/PECAM-1 | R&D Systems | AF3628 | Final concentration of 2 µg/mL |
| Rat monoclonal anti-CD68, Clone FA-11 | Bio-Rad | MCA1957 | Final concentration of 2 µg/mL |
| Donkey anti-rabbit IgG (H+L) Alexa Fluor 647 | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 711-605-152 | Final concentration of 5-10 µg/mL |
| Donkey anti-goat IgG (H+L) Alexa Fluor 568 | Invitrogen | A11077 | Final concentration of 5-10 µg/mL |
| Donkey anti-rat IgG (H+L) Alexa Fluor 647 | Jackson ImmunoResearch | 712-605-153 | Final concentration of 5-10 µg/mL |
| Imaging chamber | ibidi | 80287 | |
| Light sheet microscope | LaVision BioTec | Ultramicroscope II | |
| Imaging software | LaVision BioTec | Imspector software | |
| Microscopy visualization software | Bitplane | Imaris |
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