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Three-dimensional visualization of human brain tumors using the CUBIC technique

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Abstract

Application of tissue clearing techniques on human brain tumors is still limited. This study was to investigate the application of CUBIC on 3D pathological studies of human brain tumors. Brain tumor specimens derived from 21 patients were cleared with CUBIC. Immunostaining was conducted on cleared specimens to label astrocytes, microglia and microvessels, respectively. All tumor specimens achieved transparency after clearing. Immunostaining and CUBIC are well compatible in a variety of human brain tumors. Spatial morphologies of microvessels, astrocytes and microglia of tumors were clearly visualized in 3D, and their 3D morphological parameters were easily quantified. By comparing the quantitative morphological parameters of microvessels among brain tumors of different malignancy, we found that mean vascular diameter was positively correlated with tumor malignancy. Our study demonstrates that CUBIC can be successfully applied to 3D pathological studies of various human brain tumors, and 3D studies of human brain tumors hold great promise in helping us better understand brain tumor pathology in the future.

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Data underlying the results presented in this paper may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Jianping Liu, Zongguo Pang and Wangyan Zhang from Pathology Department of West China Hospital for their contribution in the diagnosis of brain tumors.

Funding

This study received grands from 135 Project of Outstanding Development of West China Hospital, Sichuan University (ZY2017307).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Yangyang Xu, Mengqi Wang, Yang Wu, Yifeng Shi & Wei Wang

  2. Department of Neonatology, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Qi He

  3. Core Facility of West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Jie Zhang

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  1. Yangyang Xu
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  2. Qi He
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  3. Mengqi Wang
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  4. Yang Wu
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  5. Yifeng Shi
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  6. Wei Wang
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  7. Jie Zhang
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Correspondence to Wei Wang or Jie Zhang.

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The authors declare on conflicts of interest relating to this study.

Ethical statement

Written informed consents about using tumor specimens for this study were obtained from all patients or their legal guardians. The study was approved by West China Hospital of Sichuan University Biomedical Research Ethics Committee.

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Xu, Y., He, Q., Wang, M. et al. Three-dimensional visualization of human brain tumors using the CUBIC technique. Brain Tumor Pathol 40, 4–14 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10014-022-00445-2

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