Doritos dye turns mice translucent, researchers find. Are humans next?
By: By Katie Dangerfield (Global News)
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Doritos dye turns mice translucent, researchers find. Are humans next?
Doritos might be known for spicing up snack time, but Stanford researchers have discovered that a dye in the chips can also turn mice translucent.
The study, published on Sept. 6 in the journal Science, explains how researchers at Stanford University in California used a common food dye called Yellow No. 5 — found in various foods and beauty products — on the skin of live mice.
The dye created a temporary “window” that made their organs, muscles and blood vessels visible, the researchers said.
The technique, called “optical tissue clearing,” which has not yet been tested on humans, could potentially allow the non-invasive observation and monitoring of injuries or diseases, the authors argue.
“For example, certain therapies use lasers to eliminate cancerous and precancerous cells, but are limited to areas near the skin’s surface. This technique may be able to improve that light penetration,” Hong said in a Sept. 6 press release .
The artificial food dye used in the experiment, tartrazine, also known as Yellow No. 5, is approved for use in the United States and Canada . It is commonly used to give yellow colour to a range of products, including Doritos, Mountain Dew, M&Ms, cereals like Cap’n Crunch, and beauty products such as shampoo, conditioner, soap and eyeliner, as well as some vitamins and medicines.
Although tartrazine is widely used to colour foods and cosmetics, researchers sought to explore whether it could make mice’s skin translucent. So, how did they achieve this surprising effect?
Close-up macro image of a gloved hand scooping undissolved yellow #5 dye from a glass jar. Science
The science behind the invisible mouse
Scattering of light prevents us from seeing through our bodies, the authors explained.
This is because fats, cellular fluids, proteins and other materials each have different refractive indices, which determine how much incoming light waves are bent.
To make bodies transparent, scientists wanted to make all the different parts of the tissues have the same light-bending properties.
The researcher found that tartrazine can do this.
When this dye is added to water and soaked into tissue, tartrazine molecules are structured in a way that aligns with the light-bending ability of the skin. The dye absorbs blue and purple light and allows red and orange light to travel through the tissue, resulting in transparency, the study said.
The method was first tested on thin slices of chicken breast.
As researchers increased the concentration of tartrazine, the light-bending properties of the fluid inside the muscle cells became similar to those of the muscle proteins, making the slice transparent, the researchers said.
The researchers then applied a temporary tartrazine solution to mice. On the scalp, this made the skin transparent, revealing the brain’s blood vessels. When applied to the abdomen, it showed the movements of the intestines, heart and lungs.
“Strongly absorbing dye molecules, when applied topically to biological tissues, can reduce the intrinsic light scattering within these tissues,” the study said. “This effect renders various biological tissues –including the scalp, muscle, and abdomen — transparent.”
After rinsing off the dye, the tissues quickly returned to their normal opacity, the researchers said, adding that tartrazine did not seem to have any lasting effects.
In an editorial article about the study, Christopher J. Rowlands and Jon Gorecki, both researchers of Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, argue these results will create “extremely broad interest” in the procedure.
“This approach offers a new means of visualizing the structure and activity of deep tissues and organs in vivo in a safe, temporary, and noninvasive manner,” they stated.
In a commentary published on Sept. 5 , Hong noted that this technique currently only works on mice due to their relatively thin skin layers.
Human skin is much thicker, he said, “so this method isn’t quite ready for practical use on people yet.”
However, Hong and his colleagues are working to improve the technique for human tissues and hope that, eventually, it could aid in the early detection of skin cancer and simplify laser-based tattoo removal.
— with files from Reuters
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What I wonder is if in the not-too-distant future we could see a skeleton with visible brain, lungs, stomach and intestines walking down the street.
We would regurgitate?
Well, now that I think of it, I guess eating Doritos wouldn't give us the ability to see through clothing, but I really have no wish to see people's brains, it's bad enough that we have to put up with them, eh Thomas?
When you were a kid, didi you ever read American comic books?
Because many of them had ads in the back-- often for some rather unusual things. One ad I remember was for "X-Ray Vision Eyeglasses"-- supposedly they allowed you to see past clothing-- so you could see people naked!
Those X-Ray glasses were just cardboard with a pinhole in the center... lol
Yes, of course I read American comic books, and now that you remind me of it I do recall there were some pretty weird ads. The comic book I remember the most, from my high school days was this one, and I guess it's obvious why I remember it so well.
While illegal Haitian immigrants are apparently attempting to catch-- and eat!-- our pets...I wonder if they can be talked into eating our Rats and Mice as well?
Of course if they become invisible-- the haitians will no longer be able to see them.....which might have some rather strange results!
Maybe someone will invent reverse X-RAY glasses that will solve that problem.
Maybe that's all they had to eat back where they came from, and they heard that the rats and mice in America were much sweeter with more meat on the bones.