A Confocal Endoscope for Cellular Imaging

Since its inception, endoscopy has aimed to establish an immediate diagnosis that is virtually consistent with a histologic diagnosis. In the past decade, confocal laser scanning microscopy has been brought into endoscopy, thus enabling in vivo microscopic tissue visualization with a magnification and resolution comparable to that obtained with the ex vivo microscopy of histological specimens. The major challenge in the development of instrumentation lies in the miniaturization of a fiber-optic probe for microscopic imaging with micron-scale resolution. Here, we present the design and construction of a confocal endoscope based on a fiber bundle with 1.4-μm lateral resolution and 8-frames per second (fps) imaging speed. The fiber-optic probe has a diameter of 2.6 mm that is compatible with the biopsy channel of a conventional endoscope. The prototype of a confocal endoscope has been used to observe epithelial cells of the gastrointestinal tracts of mice and will be further demonstrated in clinical trials. In addition, the confocal endoscope can be used for translational studies of epithelial function in order to monitor how molecules work and how cells interact in their natural environment.