近日，美国斯坦福大学Guosong Hong等研究人员合作利用可吸收分子在活体动物中实现光学透明度。2024年9月6日出版的《科学》杂志发表了这项成果。

研究人员报道了一个反直觉的现象，即强吸收分子可以在活体动物中实现光学透明度。研究人员探讨了这一现象背后的物理机制，发现当强吸收分子溶解在水中时，它们可以通过Kramers-Kronig关系修改水介质的折射率，使其与高折射率组织成分（如脂质）匹配。

研究人员已经证明了这种简单的方法可以可逆地使活体小鼠透明，从而允许可视化广泛的深层结构和活动。这项研究表明，高性能光学透明化剂的搜索应集中在强吸收分子上。

据了解，光学成像在生物学和医学中起着核心作用，但受到活体组织中光散射的限制。

附：英文原文

Title: Achieving optical transparency in live animals with absorbing molecules

Author: Zihao Ou, Yi-Shiou Duh, Nicholas J. Rommelfanger, Carl H. C. Keck, Shan Jiang, Kenneth BrinsonJr, Su Zhao, Elizabeth L. Schmidt, Xiang Wu, Fan Yang, Betty Cai, Han Cui, Wei Qi, Shifu Wu, Adarsh Tantry, Richard Roth, Jun Ding, Xiaoke Chen, Julia A. Kaltschmidt, Mark L. Brongersma, Guosong Hong

Issue&Volume: 2024-09-06

Abstract: Optical imaging plays a central role in biology and medicine but is hindered by light scattering in live tissue. We report the counterintuitive observation that strongly absorbing molecules can achieve optical transparency in live animals. We explored the physics behind this observation and found that when strongly absorbing molecules dissolve in water, they can modify the refractive index of the aqueous medium through the Kramers-Kronig relations to match that of high-index tissue components such as lipids. We have demonstrated that our straightforward approach can reversibly render a live mouse body transparent to allow visualization of a wide range of deep-seated structures and activities. This work suggests that the search for high-performance optical clearing agents should focus on strongly absorbing molecules.

DOI: adm6869

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adm6869