A food dye is discovered to make skin transparent, could revolutionize medical diagnostics
Tartrazine, an FDA-approved dye, succeeded in making mouse skin transparent, which could mean a breakthrough in the world of biomedicine.
File image of a cellular science laboratory at Peckham Hall
Researchers at Stanford University and the University of Texas at Dallas made a biomedical breakthrough after discovering a food dye with the ability to make the skin of living mice transparent within two hours.
Known as "Tartrazine," this dye (also known as "food coloring No. 5") is FDA-approved, which could simplify its use at the biomedical level in the future, facilitating both medical diagnoses and disease therapies by making it easier to see what is going on in the human body.
This hypothesis is backed by associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University, Guosong Hong.
"Looking ahead, this technology could make veins more visible for blood collection, facilitate laser tattoo removal or aid in the early detection and treatment of cancers."
The expert, co-author of the study published in the journal Science, explained that the research is in an experimental phase and, therefore, it is not known for sure if it will be effective on human skin, which is 10 times thicker than that of a mouse.
However, scientists are hopeful that it will work, since the procedure is based on a widely studied scientific principle: light scattering, which absorbs tartrazine when it comes into contact with the skin. This finding, as detailed to The Washington Post by National Science Foundation biophotonics specialist Adam Wax, is incredible. "You could see through the mouse. I’ve been working in optics for 30 years, and I thought that result was jaw-dropping."
However, this is no miracle, but science. The procedure was explained to Infobae by another of the study's co-authors, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, Zihao Ou:
"We combined yellow dye, which is a molecule that absorbs most of the light, with skin, which is a scattering medium. Individually, these two things block light, but when we put them together, we succeeded in making the skin transparent."
This new biomedical breakthrough, although its exact utility is not yet known, could be decisive when it comes to performing procedures common in the medical field such as blood extraction, as it would make veins much easier to see with absolute clarity. And that would be just the beginning.
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