title: A Quantitative Three-Dimensional Image Analysis Tool for Maximal Acquisition of Spatial Heterogeneity Data.
abstract: Three-dimensional (3D) imaging techniques provide spatial insight into environmental and cellular interactions and are implemented in various fields, including tissue engineering, but have been restricted by limited quantification tools that misrepresent or underutilize the cellular phenomena captured. This study develops image postprocessing algorithms pairing complex Euclidean metrics with Monte Carlo simulations to quantitatively assess cell and microenvironment spatial distributions while utilizing, for the first time, the entire 3D image captured. Although current methods only analyze a central fraction of presented confocal microscopy images, the proposed algorithms can utilize 210% more cells to calculate 3D spatial distributions that can span a 23-fold longer distance. These algorithms seek to leverage the high sample cost of 3D tissue imaging techniques by extracting maximal quantitative data throughout the captured image.
authors.affiliation: 1 Biological Systems Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London , London, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Mark C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Allenby
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Computing, Imperial College London , London, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Misener
authors.affiliation: 1 Biological Systems Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London , London, United Kingdom .|3 Department of Hematology, Imperial College London , London, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Nicki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Panoskaltsis
authors.affiliation: 1 Biological Systems Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London , London, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mantalaris
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000166:cytology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000379:methods*; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D012984:Software
keywords: 3D cultures; image analysis; spatial heterogeneity