Other Applications of Optical Clearing Agents

In this chapter, other areas of application for optical clearing agents (OCAs) are presented. The osmotic properties of agents are highly important in dermatology, cosmetics, and pharmacology, if topical application to the skin is desired. After addressing this application in Sect. 8.2, tissue poisoning and discussing the osmotic properties of certain poisons or toxic compounds will be done in Sect. 8.3. The importance of evaluating the diffusion properties of those substances in the skin, eye, and other inner tissue is indicated as a tool for optimizing treatment or decontamination dosage and procedures. Section 8.4 is used to discuss the application of agents in food industry. The dehydration capabilities of certain agents, such as sodium chloride or glycerol, are presented, and the advantages of treating fruit, meat, or fish with sugars to improve their organoleptic properties during preservation are also presented. Finally, the application of OCAs for tissue or organ preservation is presented in Sect. 8.5, where some cases for preservation of eye tissues at room temperature made with glycerol will be discussed. The use of OCAs as cryoprotectants at low temperatures is also explained. In all these applications, we refer the applicability of the method described in Sect. 6.4 to evaluate the diffusion properties of water, poisons, or drugs for ex vivo tissue samples.