Imaging of goblet cells as a marker for intestinal metaplasia of the stomach by one-photon and two-photon fluorescence endomicroscopy

Abstract

Goblet cells are a requirement for the diagnosis of intestinal metaplasia of the stomach. The gastric mucosa is lined by a monolayer of columnar epithelium with some specialization at the crypts, but there are no goblet cells in normal gastric epithelium. The appearance of goblet cells in gastric epithelium is an indicator of potential malignant progression toward adenocarcinoma. Therefore, in vivo three-dimensional imaging of goblet cells is essential for diagnoses of a premalignant stage of gastric cancers called intestinal metaplasia. We used mouse intestine, which has goblet cells, as a model of intestinal metaplasia. One-photon confocal fluorescence endomicroscopy and two-photon fluores..