MOUSE: Advanced Approaches to Skin In Vivo Optical Clearing
Elina A. Genina1,2, Alexey N. Bashkatov1,2, Valery V. Tuchin1,2,3, and Vladimir P. Zharov1,4
1Saratov State University, Russia
2Tomsk State University, Russia
3Institute of Precision Mechanics and Control RAS, Russia
4Arkansas Nanomedicine Center, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, USA
Abstract
Immersion optical clearing of biological tissue that reduces the influence of light scattering on the quality of optical imaging led to breakthrough in biophotonic studies of tissue properties ex vivo [1, 2]. However, applications of these techniques in human skin in vivo is challenging due to low efficiency, toxicity concerns, and time consuming procedure. The use of biocompatible optical clearing agents makes it possible to some increase the probing depth of non-invasive optical diagnostic methods [3, 4]. However, the protective epidermal barrier of the skin prevents the penetration of immersion liquids into the deeper layers of the skin.
Based on our discoveries described here, we propose to solve the indicated above problems by combination of physical factors such as microdermabrasion and sonophoresis, which all are approved for application in humans. Our goal was to clarify the contribution of these factors on human skin optical clearing in vivo separately and in combination.
This study involved healthy volunteers 19-23 years old with II and VI skin types. Microdermabrasion associated with mechanical peeling and massage was performed applied using a commercially available device with sapphire tip and vacuum massager. Sonophoresis was performed using a commercially available ultrasonic therapeutic device. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allowed to differentiate the contribution of each factors separately and in different combinations.
Results have demonstrated that topical application of biocompatible lipophilic chemical agent in combination with physical effects can provide increasing the optical penetration depth in human skin in vivo during short time. After optimization, OCT-signal amplitude increased more than 3-fold with twice improved depth penetration for light skin during 30 minutes that significantly exceed the results obtained earlier. All optical clearing approaches were tested on skin with VI phototype (deeply pigmented dark brown to black skin according to Fitzpatrick Skin Type Classification Scale). After combined optical clearing 1.3-fold increase in OCT-signal amplitude was achieved for dark skin.
These results show a high potential of the advanced clearing techniques for broad application in the optical diagnostics of skin and peripheral blood and lymphatic systems.
REFERENCES
[1] D. Zhu et al, Laser & Photonics Reviews 7, 732–757, 2013.
[2] P. Matryba et al, Laser Photon. Rev. 1800292, DOI: 10.1002/lpor.201800292, 2019.
[3] I. Costantini et al, Biomed. Opt. Express 10, 5251-5267, 2019.
[4] Q. Zhao et al, Sci. Rep. 6, 34954, 2016.
Speaker
Elina A. Genina
Saratov State University
Russia
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