Sujung Hong

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common chronic liver diseases closely associated with the metabolic system, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. The progression of NAFLD with advanced fibrosis is associated with an increased risk of liver cirrhosis and cancer as well as various extra-hepatic diseases. Yet, the underlying mechanism is not fully understood partly due to the absence of effective high-resolution in vivo imaging methods and the appropriate animal models recapitulating the pathology of NAFLD. To improve our understanding about complex pathophysiology of NAFLD, the need for an advanced imaging methodology to visualize and quantify subcellular-level features of NAFLD in vivo over time is ever-increasing. In this study, we established an advanced in vivo two-photon imaging technique to visualize and quantify subcellular-level pathological features of NAFLD in a live mouse animal developing hepatic steatosis, fibrosis, and disrupted microvasculature.

In dental pulp, diverse types of cells mediate the dental pulp immunity in a highly complex and dynamic manner. Yet, 3D spatiotemporal changes of various pulpal immune cells dynamically reacting against foreign pathogens during immune response have not been well characterized. It is partly due to the technical difficulty in detailed 3D comprehensive cellular-level observation of dental pulp in whole intact tooth beyond the conventional histological analysis using thin tooth slices. In this work, we validated the optical clearing technique based on modified Murray’s clear as a valuable tool for a comprehensive cellular-level analysis of dental pulp. Utilizing the optical clearing, we successfully achieved a 3D visualization of CD11c+ dendritic cells in the dentin-pulp complex of a whole intact murine tooth. Notably, a small population of unique CD11c+ dendritic cells extending long cytoplasmic processes into the dentinal tubule while located at the dentin-pulp interface like odontoblasts were clearly visualized. 3D visualization of whole murine tooth enabled a reliable observation of these rarely existing cells with a total number less than a couple of tens in one tooth. These CD11c+ dendritic cells with processes in the dentinal tubule were significantly increased in the dental pulpitis model induced by mechanical and chemical irritation. Additionally, the 3D visualization revealed a distinct spatial 3D arrangement of pulpal CD11c+ cells in the pulp into a front-line barrier-like formation in the pulp within 12 h after the irritation. Collectively, these observations demonstrated the unique capability of optical clearing-based comprehensive 3D cellular-level visualization of the whole tooth as an efficient method to analyze 3D spatiotemporal changes of various pulpal cells in normal and pathological conditions.

Park I, et al. J Breast Cancer. 2021 Oct;24(5):463-473. https://doi.org/10.4048/jbc.2021.24.e40