title: Microscopic quantification of cell integrity in raw and processed onion parenchyma cells.
abstract: A cell viability assessment method based computer vision analysis of the uptake of neutral red dye was used to quantify cell membrane integrity in raw and processed parenchyma cells of onion tissues. The presence of stained vacuoles was used as an indicator of tonoplast membrane integrity and photomicrographs were acquired for microscopic image analysis and cell integrity quantification. Two different image analysis methods, involving the analysis of the saturation and green components of RGB (red, green, blue) images, were compared to the conventional cell count method. Use of the saturation component of RGB images allowed for the visualization and quantification of viable and inviable cells as well as extracellular air spaces. The combination of neutral red uptake, as visualization by light field microscopy, and saturation image analysis, allowed for quantitative determination of the effects of high pressure processing on onion cell integrity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Preservation of vegetable tissues may involve heating or other methods that result in the loss of tissue integrity and potentially quality deterioration. In this study, we stained unprocessed and processed onion tissues with neutral red dye and then used a microscope and a computer imaging program to quantify how many cells were intact or ruptured.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Food Science and Technology, Univ. of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jernstedt
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Slaughter
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Barrett
mesh_terms: D002452:Cell Count; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005110:Extracellular Space; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D005511:Food Handling; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007202:Indicators and Reagents / Q000737:chemistry; D007425:Intracellular Membranes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009499:Neutral Red / Q000737:chemistry; D019697:Onions / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D015388:Organelles / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010784:Photomicrography; D019441:Plant Epidermis / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D011312:Pressure
chemical_list: D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D009499:Neutral Red