Breaking the Bottleneck! Tsinghua Team's New Technology Enables "Non - Destructive Perspective" of Tissues and Organs
Release time:
2025-09-12
Recently, a team from the School of Biomedical Engineering at Tsinghua University published a groundbreaking achievement in the international top - tier academic journal Cell. They proposed a vitreous tissue clearing technology called VIVIT (Visualizing Intact Volumetric Tissues). For the first time, this technology transforms biological tissues into a "vitreous state" in a low - temperature environment, presenting the three - dimensional structure of ex - vivo tissues without damage or deformation, and offering a revolutionary microscopic observation tool for life science research.
Traditional three - dimensional imaging of biological tissues relies on the "sectioning - imaging - stitching" technique. However, sectioning can lead to structural misalignment, spatial discontinuities, and signal loss. Tissue clearing techniques avoid sectioning but have issues such as swelling/shrinking deformation, fluorescence signal attenuation, and ice - crystal damage, which limit imaging accuracy and sample preservation.
The core of VIVIT technology is the "vitreous transformation". The team independently developed high - refractive - index ionic liquids. By optimizing the molecular micro - environment, they transform the whole biological tissue into a "vitreous state" with both optical transparency and physical stability at low temperatures ranging from - 20°C to 4°C. Experiments show that the deformation rate of tissues treated with VIVIT is less than 1%. Even for delicate brain tissues, sub - cellular structures like neural synapses can be clearly distinguished, breaking through the "transparent but easily deformed" limitation of traditional clearing techniques.
The technological breakthrough is not only reflected in imaging clarity but also in sample preservation and practicality. By regulating the interaction between ionic liquids and biomolecules, VIVIT enhances the intensity of fluorescent labeling signals to 2 - 30 times the original level, making weak labels visible. The physical properties of the vitreous state completely solve the problem of cryopreservation. Treated tissues can be stored at - 80°C for a long time, avoiding mechanical damage from ice - crystal formation and achieving "non - destructive cryopreservation". Moreover, VIVIT supports multiple rounds of immunostaining and continuous imaging. Researchers can sequentially identify multiple molecular targets in the same tissue, obtaining multi - scale spatial information from single cells to whole organs. Combined with the team's self - developed three - dimensional reconstruction algorithm TARRS, it can achieve high - precision stitching of continuous section images and construct cross - scale three - dimensional biological maps.
Currently, VIVIT technology has established a complete process from sample processing, multi - modal staining to three - dimensional reconstruction, and can be applied in fields such as brain science, developmental biology, and tumor research. For example, in brain tissue research, it can clearly present the connection patterns of neuronal synapses, providing precise structural data for studying the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases. In tumor research, it can preserve the complete spatial distribution of blood vessels and immune cells in the tumor micro - environment, facilitating the analysis of the three - dimensional dynamic process of tumor invasion and metastasis.
In the future, the team will continue to optimize the universality of the technology, expand its application in plant tissues and clinical pathological samples, and promote its integration with cryo - electron microscopy and super - resolution microscopy, providing key support for precision medicine and intelligent diagnosis. This original achievement is injecting new impetus into global life science research.
Latest developments
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