Analysis of the 3D spatial organization of cells and subcellular structures in tissue

David W. Knowles; Carlos Ortiz de Solorzano; Arthur Jones; Stephen J. Lockett

doi:10.1117/12.384235

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27 April 2000 Analysis of the 3D spatial organization of cells and subcellular structures in tissue

David W. Knowles, Carlos Ortiz de Solorzano, Arthur Jones, Stephen J. Lockett

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Proceedings Volume 3921, Optical Diagnostics of Living Cells III; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.384235
Event: BiOS 2000 The International Symposium on Biomedical Optics, 2000, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

Advancements in image analysis shave recently made it possible to segment the cells and nuclei, of a wide variety of tissues, from 3D images collected using fluorescence confocal microscopy. This has made it possible to analyze the spatial organization of individual cells and nuclei within the natural tissue context. We present here a spatial statistical method which examines an arbitrary 3D distribution of cells of two different types and determines the probability that the cells are randomly mixed, cells of one type are clustered, or cells of different types are preferentially associated. Beginning with a segmented 3D image of cells, the Voronoi diagram is calculated to indicate the nearest neighbor relationships of the cells. Then, in a test image of the same topology, cells are randomly assigned a type in the same proportions as in the actual specimen and the ratio of cells with nearest neighbors of the same type versus the other types is calculated. Repetition of this random assignment is used to generate a distribution function which is specific for the tissue image. Comparison of the ratios for the actual sample to this distribution assigns probabilities for the conditions defined above. The technique is being used to analyze the organization of genetically normal versus abnormal cells in cancer tissue.

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David W. Knowles, Carlos Ortiz de Solorzano, Arthur Jones, and Stephen J. Lockett "Analysis of the 3D spatial organization of cells and subcellular structures in tissue", Proc. SPIE 3921, Optical Diagnostics of Living Cells III, (27 April 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.384235

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