It sounds unbelievable, but it’s completely true. A group of scientists has managed to make some parts of live mice transparent by applying a common food coloring, used in snacks such as Doritos.
Zihao Ou, a materials scientist at Stanford University and senior author on the paper, and his team developed a biologically safe dye that makes tissues transparent by modifying the light-scattering ability of the fluids surrounding cells. This enabled them to observe blood vessels, organ function and muscles in mice in real time.
Although not yet tested in humans, it is hoped that similar strategies will eventually allow researchers to clearly observe the workings of an organism inside a living human body.
“In the future, this technology could make veins more visible for blood draws, facilitate laser tattoo removal, or aid in early detection and treatment of cancer,” ensures Stanford University materials scientist Guosong Hong.
To carry out the research, the results of which are published in the Science magazine“We combined the dye tartrazine yellow, which is a molecule that absorbs most light, especially blue and ultraviolet light, with the skin, which is a scattering medium. Separately, these two things block most of the light that passes through them, but if you put them together, you get the transparency of mouse skin,” said Zihao Ou.
In their experiments with mice, the researchers rubbed this mixture of tartrazine dye and water onto the mouse’s skin, specifically on the skull and abdomen. After a few minutes, they were able to see details of blood vessels and organs, and even observe the contraction of the muscles in the animal’s digestive tract.
“It takes a few minutes for transparency to appear,” explains Or“The time required depends on the speed at which the molecules diffuse into the skin.”
Abdomen of a mouse before and after using the dye | Science
Once this is done, the dye can be washed off and the skin will become dull again. Any remaining tartrazine that penetrates deeper into the body will be removed in the urine.
