Clarity in the Bronchial Tree
Clarity in the Bronchial Tree
Submitted by Nikhil Joshi, Elliot Akama-Garren, Tuomas Tammella, and Tyler Jacks of the Koch Institute
MIT Department of Biology, Koch Institute at MIT
This image is of smooth muscle actin staining in the lung that shows the bronchial tree and the blood vessels that are near that vessel. It was taken as part of an experiment developing a technique called clarity to “clear” lung tissue. The technique removes the opaque color of the lung, making the lung optically clear. Then we stained for smooth muscles to see how deep into the lung we could image with the microscope.
![](/files/images/styles/exhibit_full/public/imce/exhibits/2015/nikjoshi1-lungbronchi.jpg?itok=6UwBlYVS)