Accumulative difference image protocol for particle tracking in fluorescence microscopy tested in mouse lymphonodes

PLoS One. 2010 Aug 17;5(8):e12216. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012216.

Abstract

The basic research in cell biology and in medical sciences makes large use of imaging tools mainly based on confocal fluorescence and, more recently, on non-linear excitation microscopy. Substantially the aim is the recognition of selected targets in the image and their tracking in time. We have developed a particle tracking algorithm optimized for low signal/noise images with a minimum set of requirements on the target size and with no a priori knowledge of the type of motion. The image segmentation, based on a combination of size sensitive filters, does not rely on edge detection and is tailored for targets acquired at low resolution as in most of the in-vivo studies. The particle tracking is performed by building, from a stack of Accumulative Difference Images, a single 2D image in which the motion of the whole set of the particles is coded in time by a color level. This algorithm, tested here on solid-lipid nanoparticles diffusing within cells and on lymphocytes diffusing in lymphonodes, appears to be particularly useful for the cellular and the in-vivo microscopy image processing in which few a priori assumption on the type, the extent and the variability of particle motions, can be done.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Animals
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Intracellular Space / metabolism
  • Lymphocytes / cytology*
  • Mice
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence / methods*
  • Molecular Imaging / methods*
  • Time Factors