Estimating the cell density and invasive radius of three-dimensional glioblastoma tumor spheroids grown in vitro.
To gain insight into brain tumor invasion, experiments are conducted on multicellular tumor spheroids grown in collagen gel. Typically, a radius of invasion is reported, which is obtained by human measurement. We present a simple, heuristic algorithm for automated invasive radii estimation (AIRE) that uses local fluctuations of the image intensity. We then derive an analytical expression relating the image graininess to the cell density for a model imaging system. The result agrees with the experiment up to a multiplicative constant and thus describes a novel method for estimating the cell density from bright-field images.
Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan, 2074 East Hall, 525 Church Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. amstein@umich.edu
Andrew M
AM
Stein
Michal O
MO
Nowicki
Tim
T
Demuth
Michael E
ME
Berens
Sean E
SE
Lawler
E Antonio
EA
Chiocca
Leonard M
LM
Sander
D000465:Algorithms; D001706:Biopsy; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D002452:Cell Count; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D018874:Spheroids, Cellular / Q000473:pathology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000473:pathology*