Label-free classification of cells based on supervised machine learning of subcellular structures

PLoS One. 2019 Jan 29;14(1):e0211347. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211347. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

It is demonstrated that cells can be classified by pattern recognition of the subcellular structure of non-stained live cells, and the pattern recognition was performed by machine learning. Human white blood cells and five types of cancer cell lines were imaged by quantitative phase microscopy, which provides morphological information without staining quantitatively in terms of optical thickness of cells. Subcellular features were then extracted from the obtained images as training data sets for the machine learning. The built classifier successfully classified WBCs from cell lines (area under ROC curve = 0.996). This label-free, non-cytotoxic cell classification based on the subcellular structure of QPM images has the potential to serve as an automated diagnosis of single cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cell Line
  • HCT116 Cells
  • Hep G2 Cells
  • Humans
  • Leukocytes / ultrastructure*
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated
  • Single-Cell Analysis / instrumentation*
  • Single-Cell Analysis / methods
  • Supervised Machine Learning

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research in Japan 15K10132 (H. Kikuchi), 26461974 (T. Kawabata), and 15H04929 (H. Konno), URL: https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/index.html.