title: Automatic counting of microglial cell activation and its applications.
abstract: Glaucoma is a multifactorial optic neuropathy characterized by the damage and death of the retinal ganglion cells. This disease results in vision loss and blindness. Any vision loss resulting from the disease cannot be restored and nowadays there is no available cure for glaucoma; however an early detection and treatment, could offer neuronal protection and avoid later serious damages to the visual function. A full understanding of the etiology of the disease will still require the contribution of many scientific efforts. Glial activation has been observed in glaucoma, being microglial proliferation a hallmark in this neurodegenerative disease. A typical project studying these cellular changes involved in glaucoma often needs thousands of images - from several animals - covering different layers and regions of the retina. The gold standard to evaluate them is the manual count. This method requires a large amount of time from specialized personnel. It is a tedious process and prone to human error. We present here a new method to count microglial cells by using a computer algorithm. It counts in one hour the same number of images that a researcher counts in four weeks, with no loss of reliability.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Oftalmológicas Ramón Castroviejo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Facultad de Óptica y Optometría, Departamento de Oftalmología y Otorrinolaringología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Beatriz I
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9864-3140
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Gallego
authors.affiliation: Midwestern University, Chicago College of Optometry, Downers Grove, IL, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4319-2797
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Gracia
keywords: automatic counting; bilateral activation; glaucoma; glial cells; image processing; inner plexiform layer; microglial cells; outer plexiform layer