High-throughput image-based monitoring of cell aggregation and microspheroid formation

PLoS One. 2018 Jun 28;13(6):e0199092. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199092. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Studies on monolayer cultures and whole-animal models for the prediction of the response of native human tissue are associated with limitations. Therefore, more and more laboratories are tending towards multicellular spheroids grown in vitro as a model of native tissues. In addition, they are increasingly used in a wide range of biofabrication methodologies. These 3D microspheroids are generated through a self-assembly process that is still poorly characterised, called cellular aggregation. Here, a system is proposed for the automated, non-invasive and high throughput monitoring of the morphological changes during cell aggregation. Microwell patterned inserts were used for spheroid formation while an automated microscope with 4x bright-field objective captured the morphological changes during this process. Subsequently, the acquired time-lapse images were automatically segmented and several morphological features such as minor axis length, major axis length, roundness, area, perimeter and circularity were extracted for each spheroid. The method was quantitatively validated with respect to manual segmentation on four sets of ± 60 spheroids. The average sensitivities and precisions of the proposed segmentation method ranged from 96.67-97.84% and 96.77-97.73%, respectively. In addition, the different morphological features were validated, obtaining average relative errors between 0.78-4.50%. On average, a spheroid was processed 73 times faster than a human operator. As opposed to existing algorithms, our methodology was not only able to automatically monitor compact spheroids but also the aggregation process of individual spheroids, and this in an accurate and high-throughput manner. In total, the aggregation behaviour of more than 700 individual spheroids was monitored over a duration of 16 hours with a time interval of 5 minutes, and this could be increased up to 48,000 for the described culture format. In conclusion, the proposed system has the potential to be used for unravelling the mechanisms involved in spheroid formation and monitoring their formation during large-scale manufacturing protocols.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cells, Cultured
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Periosteum / cytology*
  • Periosteum / metabolism
  • Spheroids, Cellular / metabolism
  • Stem Cells / cytology*
  • Stem Cells / metabolism

Associated data

  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.5873568

Grants and funding

This work is part of Prometheus, the KU Leuven R&D division for skeletal tissue engineering (https://www.kuleuven.be/prometheus). T.D. has received funding from KU Leuven (IMP/016/028, https://www.kuleuven.be/kuleuven/). T.L. was funded by KU Leuven concerted research actions (GOA/13/016, https://www.kuleuven.be/kuleuven/). G.N.H. was funded by Research Foundation of Flanders fellowship (FWO project number: 1S05116N, www.fwo.be). I.P. was funded by a Research Foundation of Flanders fellowship (FWO project number: 12O7916N, www.fwo.be). S.V. was funded by the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (IWT project number 120154, https://www.vlaio.be/nl/andere-doelgroepen/tetra-technologie-transfer). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.