使用内窥镜的目的是实现与组织病理诊断相符的即时诊断。在过去的十年里，共聚焦激光扫描显微成像技术被引入内窥镜领域。共聚焦内窥镜使得对活体组织的显微观察能够达到与组织学样品的体外显微成像相当的放大倍数和分辨率。发展这种内窥镜的主要挑战在于具有微米级分辨率的显微成像光纤探头的小型化。笔者研制了一套基于光纤束，分辨率为1.4 μm， 成像速度可达8 fps的共聚焦内窥镜系统。光纤探头的直径为2.6 mm，可与常规内窥镜的活检通道兼容。该共聚焦内窥镜的样机已经被用于观察小鼠胃肠道上皮细胞，并将进一步被用于临床试验。此外，该共聚焦内窥镜能够被用于上皮细胞功能的转化研究，以监测自然生理环境中细微颗粒的功能和细胞间的相互作用。

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.