In vivo detection of human cutaneous beta-carotene using computational optical clearing

The content of dermal beta-carotene can be a good indicator showing the body health. Because, it is involved in production of vitamin A maintaining healthy skin and mucous membranes. Also, it reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases and its antioxidant capacity prevents the formation of cancerous cells. In this work, we use Raman spectroscopy and a low-cost diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) to detect the dermal beta-carotene spectra. We apply computational optical clearing (OC) method to in vivo evaluation the concentration of this chromophore. The results show that Raman spectroscopy is a good tool for in vitro detection of carotenoids but is not able to clearly discriminate the individual carotenoids in skin tissue in vivo. The results also show that using OC enhances the ability of low-cost diffuse reflection spectroscopy for in vivo detection of dermal beta-carotene in humans. This method can be used as a low-cost and portable device to screening the concentration of chromophores such as melanin and carotenoid molecules for oncological studies.