Diffusion model of delipidation in biological sample clearing

Abstract Biological sample clearing techniques are a potent tool for three-dimensional biological imaging, among which delipidation is an essential step in achieving high-quality biological sample transparency. Detergents and organic solvents can both be used for lipids removal. The former has been extensively investigated in biological sample clearing, while the delipidation process based on organic solvents remains to be further elucidated. Recently, organic solvents also served as a delipidation reagent in aqueous-based clearing methods and exhibited very fast clearing speed. To explain the high efficiency of organic solvents, we described the delipidation process of both detergents and organic solvents with a simple diffusion model, we proposed a possible mechanism of the delipidation process of water-miscible polar organic solvents based on the clearing results of brain samples. Both our results and model revealed that polar or non-polar organic solvents with a certain molecular structure could achieve a much faster clearing speed than detergents which could be a guide for establishing a rapid clearing protocol for biological samples with large volumes.