Olfactory dysfunction could be an early and reliable indicator for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer and Parkinson's diseases. In this paper, we compare the potential of different noninvasive medical imaging modalities (optical coherence tomography, confocal microscopy, and fluorescence endomicroscopy) to distinguish how the olfactory epithelium, both at the cellular and the structural levels, is altered. Investigations were carried out on three experimental groups: two pathological groups (mice models with deliberately altered olfactory epithelium and Alzheimer's disease transgenic mice models) were compared with healthy mice models. As histological staining, the three tested noninvasive imaging tools demonstrated the general tubular organization of the olfactory epithelium on healthy mice. Contrary to OCT, confocal microscopy, and endomicroscopy allowed visualizing the inner structure of olfactory epithelium as well as its morphological or functional changes on pathological models, alterations classically observed with histological assessment. The results could lead to relevant development of imaging tools for noninvasive and early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases through the in situ characterization of the olfactory epithelium.

中文翻译：

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比较无创成像方法观察小鼠健康和退化的嗅觉上皮以早期诊断神经退行性疾病。

嗅觉功能障碍可能是诊断神经退行性疾病（如阿尔茨海默氏症和帕金森氏病）的早期可靠指标。在本文中，我们比较了不同的非侵入性医学成像方式（光学相干断层扫描，共聚焦显微镜和荧光内镜）的潜力，以区分在细胞和结构水平上嗅觉上皮细胞是如何改变的。对三个实验组进行了研究：将两个病理学组（故意改变嗅觉上皮的小鼠模型和阿尔茨海默氏病转基因小鼠模型）与健康小鼠模型进行了比较。作为组织学染色，这三种经过测试的无创成像工具证明了健康小鼠嗅觉上皮的一般管状组织。与OCT相反，共聚焦显微镜和内镜显微镜可以观察到嗅觉上皮的内部结构及其在病理模型上的形态或功能变化，这些变化通常是通过组织学评估观察到的。结果可能通过嗅觉上皮细胞的原位表征，导致用于神经变性疾病的非侵入性和早期诊断的成像工具的相关开发。