Automated segmentation and quantification of actin stress fibres undergoing experimentally induced changes

This article describes a method to teach the computer how to count and measure the stress fibers automatically, even if they are one above the other or bent to curves. We followed a novel strategy identifying stress fibers in an iterative way. This means the program starts to find the small and sharp stress fibers before it considers the thicker stress fibers, which are often more clumped together. Here one may think of the children's game “pick up sticks”, where it is a good tactic to first take out the sticks which are not clumped together. At the end we demonstrate the capabilities of the presented algorithm by analyzing the stress fiber networks of podocytes (cells in the kidney) which are exposed to the drug Latrunculin A. Latrunculin A is known to destroy the stress fibers over time, which could be perfectly demonstrated in the data generated by the program.
Source: Journal of Microscopy - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research