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News - Cellvizio - Jul 16, 2018

Cellvizio® allows the discovery of a previously unknown human structure, the interstitium

A new study was released earlier this year using Cellvizio to identify an up-to-now unknown human structure, “the interstitium” that had never been identified using standard histological techniques.

This discovery may have significance in cancer metastasis and other diseases and could lead to new therapeutic approaches for cancer

Cellvizio enables direct visualization of human tissues at the cellular scale and allows physicians to detect anomalies invisible with standard techniques in particular within the gastrointestinal, urinary and pulmonary tracts. Cellvizio is now used in clinical routine by hundreds of gastroenterologists in order to provide their patients suffering from gastro-esophageal reflux disease, Barrett’s esophagus, early gastric cancer and other pathologies.

What did the study investigate?

The study investigated in vivo real-time histological imaging of the extrahepatic bile duct using Cellvizio (pCLE). Cellvizio identified a fluid-filled interstitial space that had not been previously reported using standard histological techniques. The fluid-filled space is located in the submucosa, drains into lymph nodes and is supported by collagen bundles.

The authors conclude that this tissue, referred to as the interstitium, could be important in a number of pathological conditions including cancer metastasis, tissue edema and fibrosis.

"This could have enormous clinical significance in normal and many disease states. We hope that our findings encourage others to validate ours and employ new approaches, of which confocal laser endomicroscopy is a good example, to question old beliefs and investigate human microanatomy." - said David L. Carr-Locke, M.D., Clinical Director of the Center for Advanced Digestive Care, Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital, and President of the International Society for Endomicroscopy

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Viewing tissue in its living and natural state at the microscopic level leads to major discoveries with major consequences on our understanding of cancer and its treatments