Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy of optically cleared human head-and-neck organs: three-dimensional tissue assessment and histological correlation

Solvent-cleared human palatine tonsil, cervical lymph node, tongue, and parotid gland imaged by LSFM preserves characteristic 3D microanatomy, enabling long-range continuity mapping beyond single histological sections.

• Why it matters: Conventional histology shows cellular detail but only a partial 3D view, limiting how head-and-neck tissue architecture relates to morphology used for assessment and staging.
• What they did: Non-neoplastic specimens were optically cleared with a solvent-based protocol, labeled with small-molecule dyes, imaged by light-sheet fluorescence microscopy, and compared against haematoxylin and eosin histology.
• The result: Tongue epithelial measurements were comparable with H&E, and segmentation enabled volumetric quantification of tongue epithelium and parotid adipocytes, supporting a single workflow for 3D morphological reference.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.