Tartrazine for Optical Clearing of Tissues: Stability and Diffusion Issues

Measuring the density of tartrazine (TZ) powder allowed to develop a protocol for fast preparation of aqueous solutions with a desired concentration. The stability time of these solutions decreases exponentially with the increase of TZ concentration: solutions with TZ concentrations below 25% remain stable for more than 24 h, while the solution with 60% TZ remains stable only for 35 min. To validate the developed protocol, muscle samples were immersed in the 40% TZ solution and, as expected, the tissue transparency increased smoothly and exponentially during the whole treatment of 30 min. The diffusion time of TZ in ex vivo skeletal muscle was quantitatively determined with high accuracy as τ _TZ = 5.39 ± 0.49 min for sample thickness of 0.5 mm. By measuring the refractive index of TZ solutions during preparation, it will be easier to prepare such solutions in a fast manner for future research on tissue optical clearing.