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Updated: Apr 20, 2026
Optical Clearing of the Mouse Central Nervous System Using Passive CLARITY
Published on: June 30, 2016
Cross-evaluation of optimal glycerol concentration to enhance optical tissue clearing efficacy
Background/Aims:
The efficacy of light therapeutic and diagnostic applications can be enhanced by employing optical tissue clearing (OTC) agents to minimize light scattering in tissue. This study aimed to investigate the optimal concentration of glycerol, so that it can be efficiently used as an OTC agent in dermatology.
Methods:
Glycerol was topically applied to avoid the possibility of edema that could be caused by dermal injection. The efficacy of glycerol was quantitatively evaluated for various concentrations using optical coherence tomography (OCT) to evaluate light scattering and ultrasound imaging modality to evaluate collagen dissociation.
Results:
The intensity in the OCT images in the deeper regions increased over time after glycerol application owing to enhanced light penetration caused by glycerol permeation into the sample. A comparable decrease over time in the collagen distribution was observed in the ultrasound images after glycerol application.
Conclusion:
The optimal concentration of glycerol to maximize OTC was found to be 70%. The finding of this study may provide a guideline regarding the use of glycerol for efficient light diagnosis and therapy in dermatology.
