TABLE 1.
Clearing reagent | Stage | Fixative | Immunolabeling applied (Y/N) | Microscope used | Structures analyzed | Quantitative analysis | References | |
Organic solvent based | BABB | Embryonic, postnatal, and adult | 4% PFA | Yes | Confocal microscope and optical projection tomography | 3D geography of lymphatic and blood vessels | N/A | Svingen et al., 2012 |
BABB | Embryonic | 4% PFA | Yes | Confocal microscope | Spatiotemporal characteristics of meiotic initiation in germ cells | Imaris and Matlab | Soygur et al., 2021 | |
BABB | Postnatal | 4% PFA and 1% Glut | No (stained with a fluorescent dye, LysoTracker) | Confocal microscope | Apoptotic granulosa cells in follicles | N/A | Zucker and Jeffay, 2006 | |
BABB | Postnatal and adult | MeOH:DMSO | Yes | Confocal microscope | The numbers and spatial distribution of follicles | Volocity and Matlab | Faire et al., 2015 | |
iDISCO | Adult | % PFA | Yes | Spinning disk confocal microscope | Growing follicles and interstitial compartment | N/A | McKey et al., 2020 | |
Aqueous based | ScaleA2 | Embryonic | % PFA | Yes | Confocal microscope | Total germ cell numbers | Imaris | Malki et al., 2015 |
CUBIC | Embryonic | % PFA | Yes (endogenous mCerulean, mCherry, and mOrange are also visualized) | Confocal microscope | Synchrony of meiotic onset and cytoplasmic sharing in germ cell clones | Imaris | Soygur et al., 2021 | |
CUBIC | Postnatal and adult | % PFA | Yes | Light-sheet microscope | Follicle numbers, 3D modeling of ovarian innervation and vasculature | Imaris | Tong et al., 2020 | |
CUBIC | Adult | % PFA | No (endogenous GFP signal is visualized) | Confocal and light-sheet microscopes | 3D visualization of all cells in the ovary | N/A | Kagami et al., 2018 | |
CUBIC | Adult | % PFA | Yes (endogenous Tomato signal is also visualized) | Light-sheet microscope | Growing follicles, vasculature, and interstitial compartment | N/A | McKey et al., 2020 | |
Hydrogel embedding | CLARITY | Postnatal, adult, and aged | % PFA | Yes | Confocal microscope | Dynamics of follicles, 3D structure and role of vasculature | Imaris and Matlab | Feng et al., 2017 |
CLARITY | Adult | % PFA | Yes | Light-sheet microscope | Follicle numbers and vasculature | Imaris | Ma et al., 2018 | |
Combined | iDISCO and CUBIC | Adult | % PFA | Yes | Light-sheet microscope and spinning disk confocal microscope | Growing follicles, oocytes, vasculature, and interstitial compartment | N/A | McKey et al., 2020 |
CLARITY and ScaleA2 | Adult | % PFA | Yes (endogenous td Tomato signal is also visualized) | Light-sheet microscope | Blood and lymphatic vessels | Ilastik and Imaris | Oren et al., 2018 |
PFA, paraformaldehyde; Glut, glutaraldehyde; MeOH, methanol; DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide; N/A, not applied.