Automated 3-D cell population analysis in thick tissue sections using laser-scanning confocal-microscopy data

Author(s):  
Hakan Ancin

This paper presents methods for performing detailed quantitative automated three dimensional (3-D) analysis of cell populations in thick tissue sections while preserving the relative 3-D locations of cells. Specifically, the method disambiguates overlapping clusters of cells, and accurately measures the volume, 3-D location, and shape parameters for each cell. Finally, the entire population of cells is analyzed to detect patterns and groupings with respect to various combinations of cell properties. All of the above is accomplished with zero subjective bias.In this method, a laser-scanning confocal light microscope (LSCM) is used to collect optical sections through the entire thickness (100 - 500μm) of fluorescently-labelled tissue slices. The acquired stack of optical slices is first subjected to axial deblurring using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. The resulting isotropic 3-D image is segmented using a spatially-adaptive Poisson based image segmentation algorithm with region-dependent smoothing parameters. Extracting the voxels that were labelled as "foreground" into an active voxel data structure results in a large data reduction.

Author(s):  
H. Ancin ◽  
B. Roysam ◽  
M.H. Chestnut ◽  
T.E. Otte ◽  
D.H. Szarowski ◽  
...  

This paper presents recent advances in automated three-dimensional (3-D) image analysis methods for cell counting, and quantitative measurement of various nuclear properties in thick (30-120 μm) tissue sections that are imaged by a laser-scanning confocal microscope. The technical advances reported here are: (i) improved 3-D nuclear separation methods for analyzing samples containing large numbers of nuclei per unit volume, and large connected clusters; (ii) methods for adapting the image analysis system to handle a much larger variety of specimens with greater variability in image parameters, such as intensities, nuclear shapes and sizes; and (iii) methods for assisting a user in selecting parameter inputs to the counting system.Improved 3-D nuclear separation was achieved by computing image gradients from each optical slice. Perona and Malik’s algorithm was used to enhance the image gradient at true nuclear boundaries while suppressing the undesirable intra-nuclear image gradients. The result was used to compute a new proximity index for the partitional cluster analysis method.


Author(s):  
J. Holy ◽  
G. Schatten

One of the classic limitations of light microscopy has been the fact that three dimensional biological events could only be visualized in two dimensions. Recently, this shortcoming has been overcome by combining the technologies of laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) and computer processing of microscopical data by volume rendering methods. We have employed these techniques to examine morphogenetic events characterizing early development of sea urchin embryos. Specifically, the fourth cleavage division was examined because it is at this point that the first morphological signs of cell differentiation appear, manifested in the production of macromeres and micromeres by unequally dividing vegetal blastomeres.The mitotic spindle within vegetal blastomeres undergoing unequal cleavage are highly polarized and develop specialized, flattened asters toward the micromere pole. In order to reconstruct the three-dimensional features of these spindles, both isolated spindles and intact, extracted embryos were fluorescently labeled with antibodies directed against either centrosomes or tubulin.


1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen E. Mahoney ◽  
Stephen W. Paddock ◽  
Louis C. Smith ◽  
Dorothy E. Lewis ◽  
Madeleine Duvic

Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1387 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Galip Icduygu ◽  
Meltem Asilturk ◽  
M. Akif Yalcinkaya ◽  
Youssef K. Hamidi ◽  
M. Cengiz Altan

The three-dimensional nano-morphology of poly(methyl methacrylate; PMMA) microcapsules filled with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and epoxy resin were investigated by various microscopy methods, including a novel, laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) method. Initially, PMMA microcapsules containing various amounts of CNTs were synthesized by a solvent evaporation method. Scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that pore-free, smooth-surface microcapsules formed with various types of core-shell morphologies. The average size of CNT/epoxy/PMMA microcapsules was shown to decrease from ~52 μm to ~15 μm when mixing speed during synthesis increased from 300 rpm to 1000 rpm. In general, the presence of CNTs resulted in slightly larger microcapsules and higher variations in size. Moreover, three-dimensional scans obtained from confocal microscopy revealed that higher CNT content increased the occurrence and size of CNT aggregates inside the microcapsules. Entrapped submicron air bubbles were also observed inside most microcapsules, particularly within those with higher CNT content.


Biologia ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulína Gálfiová ◽  
Ivan Varga ◽  
Martin Kopáni ◽  
Peter Michalka ◽  
Jana Michalková ◽  
...  

AbstractThe representation of microcirculation can be approached in several ways. One of the possibilities is to represent the endothelium (endothelial or sinus lining cells) and their basement membrane on the basis of detecting the known components and the expression of the surface antigenes by the methods of immuno-, enzyme- or lectino-histochemical analysis, or by staining or impregnation histological methods. The other possibility is the examination of samples by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. For three-dimensional demonstration corrosion casts techniques or laser scanning confocal microscopy can be used. In this paper we describe the survey of immuno-, enzyme- and lectino-histochemical characteristics of selected components of microcirculation and our own results of its demonstration in human spleen.


Development ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 127 (9) ◽  
pp. 1767-1787 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.E. Foe ◽  
C.M. Field ◽  
G.M. Odell

We studied cyclic reorganizations of filamentous actin, myosin II and microtubules in syncytial Drosophila blastoderms using drug treatments, time-lapse movies and laser scanning confocal microscopy of fixed stained embryos (including multiprobe three-dimensional reconstructions). Our observations imply interactions between microtubules and the actomyosin cytoskeleton. They provide evidence that filamentous actin and cytoplasmic myosin II are transported along microtubules towards microtubule plus ends, with actin and myosin exhibiting different affinities for the cell's cortex. Our studies further reveal that cell cycle phase modulates the amounts of both polymerized actin and myosin II associated with the cortex. We analogize pseudocleavage furrow formation in the Drosophila blastoderm with how the mitotic apparatus positions the cleavage furrow for standard cytokinesis, and relate our findings to polar relaxation/global contraction mechanisms for furrow formation.


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