Computer Analysis of Isolated Cardiomyocyte Contraction Process via Advanced Image Processing Techniques
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Computing in Cardiology 2015 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://www.cinc.org/archives/2015/pdf/0453.pdf |
| Field | Genetics and molecular biology |
| Keywords | Optical contraction analsys; Cardiomyoycyte; Atomic force microscopy |
| Attached files | |
| Description | Isolated cardiomyocytes (CMs) have been used as valid and useful model in experimental cardiology research for decades. A single CMs is considered as a functional unit with electrical, signaling, and mechanical functions of cell excitation-contraction process. The contraction function is usually measured via expensive and complex instruments which can either damage the cell or take much time for setting up Atomic Force Microscopy (AMF). In contrary, recent development of optical microscopy and digital cameras suggests utilization of touch-less CMs video acquisition in connection with advanced image processing techniques for automatic and precise evaluation of CMs contraction process. A typical adult CMs is a cylindrically-shaped cell (approx. with length 100µm and diameter 25µm) that can be observed as a bright structure surrounded by dark curve in bright-field optical microscopy. The dark curve surrounding the CMs are formed by cell membrane that blocks and scatters visible light. The proposed paper presents an automatic membrane detection method via computer processing of acquired video-sequences by utilization of dynamic active contour model. Evaluation of detected cell area is consequently used for estimation of CMs contraction function and its beating parameters. A set of eight isolated CMs video-sequences was acquired using bright-field optical microscopy equipped with high-speed scientific camera with framerate 50-100 fps and 512×512 pixel resolution. A contraction function was extracted from video-sequences and compared with synchronized contraction measurement by AFM. The results show high correlation (R>0.9) between the CMs beating parameters derived from estimated contraction function and standard AFM measurement. The results signalize the proposed methodology can be used for evaluation of CMs contraction processes, which can be useful in drug screening. |
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