TY - JOUR TI - Translational rapid ultraviolet-excited sectioning tomography for whole-organ multicolor imaging with real-time molecular staining AU - Yu, Wentao AU - Kang, Lei AU - Tsang, Victor TC AU - Zhang, Yan AU - Wong, Ivy HM AU - Wong, Terence TW A2 - Dean, Kevin M A2 - Stainier, Didier YR VL - 11 PY - 2022 DA - 2022/11/04 SP - e81015 C1 - eLife 2022;11:e81015 DO - 10.7554/eLife.81015 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81015 AB - Rapid multicolor three-dimensional (3D) imaging for centimeter-scale specimens with subcellular resolution remains a challenging but captivating scientific pursuit. Here, we present a fast, cost-effective, and robust multicolor whole-organ 3D imaging method assisted with ultraviolet (UV) surface excitation and vibratomy-assisted sectioning, termed translational rapid ultraviolet-excited sectioning tomography (TRUST). With an inexpensive UV light-emitting diode (UV-LED) and a color camera, TRUST achieves widefield exogenous molecular-specific fluorescence and endogenous content-rich autofluorescence imaging simultaneously while preserving low system complexity and system cost. Formalin-fixed specimens are stained layer by layer along with serial mechanical sectioning to achieve automated 3D imaging with high staining uniformity and time efficiency. 3D models of all vital organs in wild-type C57BL/6 mice with the 3D structure of their internal components (e.g., vessel network, glomeruli, and nerve tracts) can be reconstructed after imaging with TRUST to demonstrate its fast, robust, and high-content multicolor 3D imaging capability. Moreover, its potential for developmental biology has also been validated by imaging entire mouse embryos (~2 days for the embryo at the embryonic day of 15). TRUST offers a fast and cost-effective approach for high-resolution whole-organ multicolor 3D imaging while relieving researchers from the heavy sample preparation workload. KW - sectioning tomography KW - multicolor imaging KW - widefield microscopy KW - whole-organ imaging KW - embryology JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -