The X-CLARITY™ is a collection of systems and ready-to-use reagents developed by Logos Biosystems to make electrophoretic tissue clearing simple, rapid, and efficient. Examine your samples with a new perspective with the X-CLARITY™.
Sectioning is time. We cut the time.
Time is your most valuable asset in research. Imagine the time you spend preparing, sectioning, labeling, mounting, imaging, reconstructing, and analyzing hundreds upon thousands of ultra-thin slices. Now imagine never having to section again. Keep your samples whole with X-CLARITY™, your ultimate solution for electrophoretic tissue clearing.
Accelerate your research with the X-CLARITY™
Logos Biosystems licensed and independently developed the original CLARITY technology to make significant improvements for tissue clearing efficiency and reproducibility. With the world’s first commercial electrophoretic tissue clearing system, a new polymerization system, and ready-to-use reagents, tissue clearing has never been faster or simpler.
WHAT IS CLARITY ?
CLARITY is a tissue clearing method that produces structurally sound and transparent whole tissues ready for multiple rounds of antibody labeling and imaging. The method has opened up a world of possibilities, from tracing neural circuitry to exploring the relationship between structure and function.
The main steps are as follows:
1) Hydrogel Infusion
A fixed tissue sample is incubated in a hydrogel monomer solution to allow hydrogel monomers to diffuse uniformly throughout the sample.
The X-CLARITY™ Hydrogel Solution Kit is a ready-to-use acrylamide solution with a VA-044 thermal initiator that has been found to produce tissue samples that can be cleared rapidly and thoroughly.
2) Hydrogel-Tissue Hybridization
Once the hydrogel monomer solution has fully permeated the tissue sample, the monomers are polymerized to embed the tissue in a hydrogel matrix. The sample is heated, causing the thermal initiator to release free radicals and initiate radical polymerization of the hydrogel monomers, covalently linking the biomolecules in the tissue sample to a sturdy hydrogel network, preserving molecular information and structural integrity. The process is done in a strictly anaerobic environment, as oxygen is highly reactive with free radicals, making it a strong inhibitor of polymerization.
The X-CLARITY™ Polymerization System is a standalone, automated system that eliminates the need for extra equipment such as a vacuum pump, desiccator, tanks of nitrogen gas, or a water bath. Samples can simply be placed in well plates or conical tubes to polymerize pre-treated samples in a heated and strictly anaerobic environment. Users control vacuum strength, temperature, and a timer through a simple touchscreen interface.
3) Tissue Clearing
Once the tissue-hydrogel hybrid has been formed, lipids are broken up through electrophoresis in the presence of ionic detergents, leaving behind a stable and transparent tissue-hydrogel hybrid that is chemically accessible for molecular phenotyping.
The X-CLARITY™ Tissue Clearing System is an all-in-one, easy-to-use solution for electrophoretic tissue clearing. Its unique design accelerates the removal of lipids from tissues while preserving the structural integrity of the sample.
The X-CLARITY™ can clear a whole mouse brain in just 6 hours, an astounding 8 times faster than the original technology. Electrophoretic Tissue Clearing Solution is a premixed SDS-based buffer optimized for use with the X-CLARITY™ Tissue Clearing System.
4) Labeling and Imaging
The tissue-hydrogel hybrid is placed in an RI matching solution prior to imaging to optimize transparency.
X-CLARITY™ Mounting Solution is a high quality, cost-efficient refractive index matching medium.
X-CLARITY™ Mounting Solution minimizes photobleaching and preserves fluorescence signals, making it an ideal solution for clarified and labeled tissue samples.