Optical investigation of bovine grey and white matters in visible and near-infrared ranges

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Due to enormous interests for laser in medicine and biology, optical properties characterization of different tissue have be affecting in development processes. In addition, the optical properties of biological tissues could be influenced by storage methods. Thus, optical properties of bovine white and grey tissues preserved by formalin have been characterized over a wide wavelength spectrum varied between 440 nm and 1000 nm. Materials and Methods: To that end, a single integrating sphere system was assembled for spectroscopic characterization and an inverse adding-doubling algorithm was used to retrieve optical coefficients, i.e. reduced scattering and absorption coefficients. Results: White matter has shown a strong scattering property in comparison to grey matter. On the other hand, the grey matter has absorbed light extensively. In comparison, the reduced scattering profile for both tissue types turned out to be consistent with prior works that characterized optical coefficients in vivo. On the contrary, absorption coefficient behavior has a different feature. Conclusion: Formalin could change the tissue’s optical properties because of the alteration of tissue’s structure and components. The absence of hemoglobin that seeps out due to the use of a formalin could reduce the absorption coefficient over the visible range. Both the water replacement by formalin could reduce the refractive index of a stored tissue and the absence of hemoglobin that scatters light over the presented wavelength range should diminish the reduced scattering coefficients over that wavelength range.