Glyoxal fixation is applicable to whole-brain serial section imaging in mice

This study evaluated glyoxal fixation for whole-brain serial section imaging using the FAST (block-face serial microscopy tomography) system. Glyoxal-fixed mouse brains exhibited slight shrinkage compared with paraformaldehyde-fixed brains but showed no appreciable variations over time. Notably, glyoxal provided an ∼11-fold higher autofluorescence, facilitating precise focal plane identification and high-contrast label-free structural imaging. We observed that 4 days of fixation ensured tissue rigidity for smooth sectioning and intact section retrieval. Furthermore, the application of an autofluorescence quenching reagent enabled clear post hoc c-Fos immunostaining. Thus, glyoxal fixation is a powerful tool for multiscale label-free 3D brain mapping.