US researchers develop method the make mice transparent
Breakthrough opens way to map nervous system, and show how cancers spread
Researchers have found a way to make see-through mice, but you will not find them scampering around your kitchen.
Before they are treated with chemicals, the animals are killed and their skin removed. Researchers made their inner organs transparent, but not their bones.
The results look like a rodent-shaped block of gelatin with the organs held in place by connective tissue and a gel used in the procedure.
Mice are mainstays of biomedical research because much of their basic biology is similar to ours and they can be altered in ways that simulate human diseases.
Scientists have been able to make tissues transparent to some degree for a century, and in recent years several fresh methods have been developed.
Last year, for example, a technique that produced see-through mouse brains made headlines.