Automatic analysis and quantification of fluorescently labeled synapses in microscope images

Shai Yona; Alex Katsman; Ayelet Orenbuch; Daniel Gitler; Yitzhak Yitzhaky

doi:10.1117/12.893888

24 September 2011 Automatic analysis and quantification of fluorescently labeled synapses in microscope images

Shai Yona, Alex Katsman, Ayelet Orenbuch, Daniel Gitler, Yitzhak Yitzhaky

Proceedings Volume 8135, Applications of Digital Image Processing XXXIV; 81351K (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.893888
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to classify and quantify synapses and their properties in the cultures of a mouse's hippocampus, from images acquired by a fluorescent microscope. Quantification features include the number of synapses, their intensity and their size characteristics. The images obtained by the microscope contain hundreds to several thousands of synapses with various elliptic-like shape features and intensities. These images also include other features such as glia cells and other biological objects beyond the focus plane; those features reduce the visibility of the synapses and interrupt the segmentation process. The proposed method comprises several steps, including background subtraction, identification of suspected centers of synapses as local maxima of small neighborhoods, evaluation of the tendency of objects to be synapses according to intensity properties at their larger neighborhoods, classification of detected synapses into categories as bulks or single synapses and finally, delimiting the borders of each synapse.

Citation Download Citation

Shai Yona, Alex Katsman, Ayelet Orenbuch, Daniel Gitler, and Yitzhak Yitzhaky "Automatic analysis and quantification of fluorescently labeled synapses in microscope images", Proc. SPIE 8135, Applications of Digital Image Processing XXXIV, 81351K (24 September 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.893888

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