Optical biopsies bring the microscope to the patient rather than the tissue to the microscope, and may complement or replace the tissue-harvesting component of the traditional biopsy process with its associated risks. In general, optical biopsies are limited by the lack of endogenous tissue contrast and the small number of clinically approved in vivo dyes. This study tests multiple FDA-approved drugs that have structural similarity to research dyes as off-label in situ fluorescent alternatives to standard ex vivo hematoxylin & eosin tissue stain. Numerous drug-dye combinations shown here may facilitate relatively safe and fast in situ or possibly in vivo staining of tissue, enabling real-time optical biopsies and other advanced microscopy technologies, which have implications for the speed and performance of tissue- and cellular-level diagnostics.

光学活检将显微镜带给患者，而不是将组织带到显微镜，并且可以补充或替代传统活检过程的组织采集组件及其相关风险。一般来说，光学活检受到缺乏内源性组织对比和临床批准的体内染料数量少的限制。这项研究测试了多种 FDA 批准的药物，这些药物与研究染料具有结构相似性，作为标准离体苏木精和伊红组织染色剂的标签外原位荧光替代品。这里显示的许多药物染料组合可能有助于在原位或可能在体内相对安全和快速 组织染色，实现实时光学活检和其他先进的显微镜技术，这对组织和细胞级诊断的速度和性能有影响。