細胞レベルでの組織観察を可能にする顕微内視鏡の開発とその臨床応用の可能性

抄録

　In vivo cellular imaging from tissue located deep in the brain or in the body remains challenging. To monitor molecular changes or neural activities from neural circuits in the deep brain area, we developed a confocal micro-endoscope system which can be used for fluorescence resonant energy transfer or Ca imaging. We adopted this system for the analyses of the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, and have shown its efficacy in the field of system neuroscience. In this paper, I briefly describe optical configurations for microendoscopy available to date and discuss the possible applications of the optic system mentioned above in the fields of neuroscience, otolaryngology and neuro-otology.