Fig. 1

Ultrafast tissue clearing with AKS. A Transparency of 300-μm-thick slices before and after clearing with different components of AKS. a is 20% (wt/vol) D-sorbitol, b is 20% (vol/vol) DMSO, c is 0.5 M Tris, and d is 40% (vol/vol) TDE. Representative of n = 3 slices (scale bar: 1 mm). B Statistical data showing the sample morphology changes after AKS treatment at different time points. All values are presented as mean ± SEM and included in Additional file 11: Table S1. Statistical significance (n = 4, **p < 0.01) was assessed by a one-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s multiple comparison tests. C Rapid clearing of 100-μm-thick brain slice within 2 min. Representative of n = 3 slices (scale bar: 2 mm). D Change in optical transmittance of different brain regions of 100-μm-thick slices before and after AKS treatment. All values are presented as mean ± SEM and included in Additional file 11: Table S2. Statistical significance (n = 4, ****p<0.0001) was assessed by paired t-test. E A 1-mm-thick brain slice before and after clearing with AKS for 1 h. Representative of n = 3 slices (scale bar: 2 mm). F Hemibrain of mice before and after clearing with AKS for 8 h. Representative of n = 3 hemibrains (scale bar: 2 mm). G The 1-mm-thick sections from different organs before and after clearing with AKS treatment for 1 h. Representative of n = 3 samples each tissue (scale bar: 1 mm)