WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Researchers at Stanford University have discovered that applying a common food dye to a mouse's abdomen can temporarily make its liver, intestines and bladder visible through the abdominal skin.
For the study, published in the journal Science, the scientists used a mixture of water and tartrazine, a bright yellow-orange food coloring that absorbs blue and ultraviolet rays, making it easier for light to pass through the skin.
'Instead of relying on invasive biopsies, doctors might be able to diagnose deep-seated tumors by simply examining a person's tissue without the need for invasive surgical removal,' said Dr. Guosong Hong, a senior researcher on the project. 'This technique could potentially make blood draws less painful by helping phlebotomists easily locate veins under the skin.'
After initial tests on mice tissue samples and chicken breasts, the scientists applied the dye to the skulls and abdomens of the live mice. Within minutes, the dye made 'the skin, muscle, and connective tissues transparent in live rodents.'
'The most surprising part of this study is that we usually expect dye molecules to make things less transparent. For example, if you mix blue pen ink in water, the more ink you add, the less light can pass through the water,' Hong continued.
'In our experiment, when we dissolve tartrazine in an opaque material like muscle or skin, which normally scatters light, the more tartrazine we add, the clearer the material becomes. But only in the red part of the light spectrum. This goes against what we typically expect with dyes.'
Researchers emphasized the safety of the solution, explaining that the mouse skin returned to its original state, once the dye was washed off, and was then expelled from the body through urine.
'It's important that the dye is biocompatible - it's safe for living organisms,' said Zihao Ou, lead author and assistant professor of physics at The University of Texas at Dallas. 'In addition, it's very inexpensive and efficient; we don't need very much of it to work.'
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