title: Optical clearing of skin enhanced with hyaluronic acid for increased contrast of optoacoustic imaging.
abstract: Enhanced delivery of optical clearing agents (OCA) through skin may improve sensitivity of optical and optoacoustic (OA) methods of imaging, sensing, and monitoring. This report describes a two-step method for enhancement of light penetration through skin. Here, we demonstrate that topical application of hyaluronic acid (HA) improves skin penetration of hydrophilic and lipophilic OCA and thus enhances their performance. We examined the OC effect of 100% polyethylene and polypropylene glycols (PPGs) and their mixture after pretreatment by HA, and demonstrated significant increase in efficiency of light penetration through skin. Increased light transmission resulted in a significant increase of OA image contrast in vitro. Topical pretreatment of skin for about 30 min with 0.5% HA in aqueous solution offers effective delivery of low molecular weight OCA such as a mixture of PPG-425 and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-400. The developed approach of pretreatment by HA prior to application of clearing agents (PEG and PPG) resulted in a ∼ 47-fold increase in transmission of red and near-infrared light and significantly enhanced contrast of OA images.
authors.affiliation: TomoWave Laboratories, 6550 Mapleridge Street Suite 124, Houston, Texas 77081, United States.
authors.forename: Anton
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liopo
authors.affiliation: TomoWave Laboratories, 6550 Mapleridge Street Suite 124, Houston, Texas 77081, United StatesbUniversity of Houston, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 3600 Calhoun Road, Houston, Texas 77004, United States.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: TomoWave Laboratories, 6550 Mapleridge Street Suite 124, Houston, Texas 77081, United States.
authors.forename: Dmitri A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Tsyboulski
authors.affiliation: TomoWave Laboratories, 6550 Mapleridge Street Suite 124, Houston, Texas 77081, United StatesbUniversity of Houston, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 3600 Calhoun Road, Houston, Texas 77004, United States.
authors.forename: Alexander A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Oraevsky
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D061088:Photoacoustic Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D012867:Skin / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000187:drug effects*; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid