Abstract
Photoacoustic microscopy was applied ot the determination of dye (alcian blue 8GS) spotted on a mucin layer. The determination range in a 40 μm diameter area was 40-1200 pg. The total dye quantity in the spot (ca. 2mm diameter) was determined by integrating the quantities in the 40 μm diameter area within 15% error, irrespective of the uniformity of the distribution. This method was applied to the analysis of acidic mucopoly-saccharide in the rat rectum and in rat eyeball sections stained with alcian blue 8GS. The dye quantity was estimated to be 40-640 pg in the microregion of 40 μm diameter area and 1.5-1.8 μg in the whole region in ca. 8 μm thick sections. These quantities corresponded to 1.6-26 ng and 60-72 μg of mucin, respectively, based on the weight binding ratio of 40 of mucin to the dye in solution.
