title: Automated 5-D analysis of cell migration and interaction in the thymic cortex from time-lapse sequences of 3-D multi-channel multi-photon images.
abstract: This paper presents automated methods to quantify dynamic phenomena such as cell-cell interactions and cell migration patterns from time-lapse series of multi-channel three-dimensional image stacks of living specimens. Various 5-dimensional (x, y, z, t, lambda) images containing dendritic cells (DC), and T-cells or thymocytes in the developing mouse thymic cortex and lymph node were acquired by two-photon laser scanning microscopy (TPLSM). The cells were delineated automatically using a mean-shift clustering algorithm. This enables morphological measurements to be computed. A robust multiple-hypothesis tracking algorithm was used to track thymocytes (the DC were stationary). The tracking data enable dynamic measurements to be computed, including migratory patterns of thymocytes, and duration of thymocyte-DC contacts. Software was developed for efficient inspection, corrective editing, and validation of the automated analysis results. Our software-generated results agreed with manually generated measurements to within 8%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical, Computer, and System Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ladi
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Herzmark
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Robey
authors.forename: Badrinath
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Roysam
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000276:immunology*; D002678:Chimera; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000379:methods; D036641:Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton / Q000379:methods; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*