http://www.menieresresearch.org.au/news/scientific-news January 2014 Using funds raised by the Meniere’s Research Fund Inc., and more specifically, by Lachlan Cameron who ran the river Rhine in 2013, the Meniere’s Research Laboratory has built the first “Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscope” in Australia. This type of microscope allows the research team to virtually “section” through the inner ear, taking 1000s of high-resolution images which can then be re-constructed to produce a 3D image of the ear. The technique involves first making an ear ‘optically-transparent’ using chemicals, and then passing the inner ear tissue en bloc through a thin (5 micron) 2D sheet of laser light, which only illuminates a single 2D slice of the tissue at any one time, which can then be imaged using a high-resolution camera. The team is currently using this camera to image the changes in the volume of endolymph in their experimental models of Endolymphatic Hydrops. Prior to using this microscope, they had to rely on either histological sections (i.e. physically slicing up the ear and then viewing each slice under a traditional microscope – which is both inaccurate with respect to the inner ear morphology, and laborious), or they had to use high-resolution Xray Micro-CT imaging (which produces similar results as those obtained by the light-sheet microscope, but was expensive to perform). The new Light-Sheet Microscope will allow the team to more effectively investigate the causes of Endolymphatic Hydrops, and they are also hoping to incorporate techniques that will allow them to use ‘fluorescent biomarkers’ to quantify the biochemical changes that occur within the inner ear during endolymphatic hydrops development.
Very interesting. It's always good to read of any kind of progress being made with regards to researching the cause of MM. Thanks Vicki!