Medical Uses
Brilliant Blue G has recently been used in scientific experiments to treat spinal injuries in laboratory rats. It acts by reducing the body's natural swelling response, which can cause neurons in the area to die of metabolic stress. Testing is still in progress to determine whether this treatment can be used effectively in humans. The recent tests have administered the dye within 15 minutes of injury, but to be effective in a real-life setting, where it may take time for a patient to reach the emergency room, the treatment should be effective even when administered up to two hours after injury. The only reported side effect was that the rats temporarily turned blue.
Under the trade name Brilliant Peel, Brilliant Blue G is used as a stain to assist surgeons in retinal surgery.
Read more about this topic: Coomassie Brilliant Blue
Famous quotes containing the word medical:
“Every day our garments become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of the wearer’s character, until we hesitate to lay them aside without such delay and medical appliances and some such solemnity even as our bodies.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic—in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea—known to medical science is work.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)