Biblioteca Virtual en Salud

Objective To investigate the feasibility of high?resolution microendoscopy( HRME) im?aging for animal gastrointestinal mucosa. Methods Mucosal tissues were harvested from the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine of Japanese big?ear white rabbits. The effects of HRME imaging of different lo?cations such as the gastric antrum and fundus, small intestine and large intestine were observed, and those of different exposure time were compared.Accuracy of HRME imaging was compared with pathology. Results The specific tissues of the gastrointestinal mucosa could be clearly distinguished from the HRME images. In the superficial layer of the fundic mucosa, numerous closely arranged glands as well as oval or elongated branched openings of the gastric pits and linear peripheral cracks were visible;the nuclei were arranged reg?ularly. In the superficial layer of the antral mucosa, irregular or tubular openings of the gastric pits and cracked glandular cavities were visible, with the cells surrounding the gastric pits regularly arranged and the nuclei small and densely distributed. In the superficial layer of the small intestine mucosa, stereoscopic thick?finger?shaped villi cluster was visible. The intervillous spaces were crack?like, and the surface was cov?ered by regularly arranged reflective, absorptive cells. In the superficial layer of the large intestine mucosa, many regularly arranged daisy?like round crypts of uniform size, as well as reflective, goblet cells surrounding the crypt and the interval space between crypts were visible. When the exposure time increased, the nuclei became brighter. An excellent correlation was noted between the results of histologic examination and those obtained by using HRME. Conclusion HRME can produce accurate images of the animal gastro?intestinal mucosae and may be a novel technique for further studies of human gastrointestinal pathology.