3D-Bioprinted Phantom with Human Skin Phototypes for Biomedical Optics

摘要

3D-bioprinted skin-mimicking phantoms with skin colors ranging across theFitzpatrick scale are reported. These tools can help understand the impactof skin phototypes on biomedical optics. Synthetic melanin nanoparticles ofdifferent sizes (70–500 nm) and clusters are fabricated to mimic the opticalbehavior of melanosome. The absorption coefficient and reduced scatteringcoefficient of the phantoms are comparable to real human skin. Further themelanin content and distribution in the phantoms versus real human skinsare validated via photoacoustic (PA) imaging. The PA signal of the phantomcan be improved by: 1) increasing melanin size (3–450-fold), 2) increasingclustering (2–10.5-fold), and 3) increasing concentration (1.3–8-fold). Then,multiple biomedical optics tools (e.g., PA, fluorescence imaging, and photothermaltherapy) are used to understand the impact of skin tone on thesemodalities. These well-defined 3D-bioprinted phantoms may have value intranslating biomedical optics and reducing racial bias.