Clearing-induced tisssue shrinkage: A novel observation of a thickness size effect

The use of clearing agents has provided new insights in various fields of medical research (developmental biology, neurology) by enabling examination of tissue architecture in 3D. One of the challenges is that clearing agents induce tissue shrinkage and the shrinkage rates reported in the literature are incoherent. Here, we report that for a classical clearing agent, benzyl-alcohol benzyl-benzoate (BABB), the shrinkage decreases significantly with increasing sample size, and present an analytical formula describing this.

Automated summary

The use of clearing agents has provided new insights in various fields of medical research by enabling examination of tissue architecture in 3D. However, a challenge lies in the tissue shrinkage induced by these agents, with this study reporting a significant decrease in shrinkage rates with increasing sample size and presenting an analytical formula describing this relationship.