Imaging dermal blood flow through the intact rat skin with an optical clearing method

Dan Zhu; Jing Wang; Zhongwei Zhi; Xiang Wen; Qingming Luo

doi:10.1117/1.3369739

1 March 2010 Imaging dermal blood flow through the intact rat skin with an optical clearing method

Dan Zhu, Jing Wang, Zhongwei Zhi, Xiang Wen, Qingming Luo

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Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 15, Issue 2, 026008 (March 2010). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3369739

Abstract

Noninvasive detection of skin microcirculation is very significant for clinical diagnosis and therapy of peripheral vascular disease. In this study, an optical clearing method enables a laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) technique to image dermal blood flow through intact rat skin. The optical clearing effect of rat skin in vitro caused by a mixture of PEG-400 and Thiazone is evaluated by a commercially available spectrophotometer with an integrating sphere. A LSCI system is applied to image the dermal blood flow of in vivo rat skin after topical treatment of the agents. The results show that the reduced scattering coefficient (630 nm) is down to 60% of the initial value after 40 min of topical treatment of the mixture on skin in vitro. In vivo experimental results show that a 12-min treatment of the mixture on the epidermis can make the skin transparent and dermal vessels can be observed, while treatment with pure PEG-400 cannot. The process of skin optical clearing lasts, and the skin can be recovered by treatment of saline solution. Because optical clearing decreases the temporal contrast, dermal blood flow can be obtained by the laser speckle contrast imaging technique.

©(2010) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

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Dan Zhu, Jing Wang, Zhongwei Zhi, Xiang Wen, and Qingming Luo "Imaging dermal blood flow through the intact rat skin with an optical clearing method," Journal of Biomedical Optics 15(2), 026008 (1 March 2010). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3369739

Published: 1 March 2010

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