Study on optical clearing effects by using tissue-like phantom

Previous studies have focused on different tissue samples treated with optical clearing agents(OCAs), which showed premising results of optical clearing on decreasing light scattering effects to some degree. However, optical properties obtained from different tissue sections even from the same tissue presented variable results, which further could make it difficult to understand the mechanism of optical clearing. In this talk, we introduced tissue-like phantoms with stabile optical properties which are in accord with those of human tissues. Firstly, tissue-like phantoms mimicking the optical properties of human skin were fabricated. And then by using glycerol as enhancer, optical clearing effects of tissue-like phantom was investigated. When glycerol was added more and more into tissue-like phantom, the values of transmitted intensity presented an ascending tendency and the total attenuation coefficients decreased by degrees. The changes of optical property parameters especially scattering coefficients, showed that the addition of glycerol led to a reduction in scattering effects of tissue-like phantoms. In conclusion, the application of a robust tissue-like phantom could potentially quantify optical clearing effects, and further this would facilitate optical clearing technique to be used in light-based diagnoses and therapies.