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Gliko O, Mallory M, Dalley R, Gala R, Gornet J, Zeng H, Sorensen SA, Sümbül U. High-throughput analysis of dendrite and axonal arbors reveals transcriptomic correlates of neuroanatomy. Nat Commun 2024; 15:6337. [PMID: 39068160 PMCID: PMC11283452 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50728-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 07/16/2024] [Indexed: 07/30/2024] Open
Abstract
Neuronal anatomy is central to the organization and function of brain cell types. However, anatomical variability within apparently homogeneous populations of cells can obscure such insights. Here, we report large-scale automation of neuronal morphology reconstruction and analysis on a dataset of 813 inhibitory neurons characterized using the Patch-seq method, which enables measurement of multiple properties from individual neurons, including local morphology and transcriptional signature. We demonstrate that these automated reconstructions can be used in the same manner as manual reconstructions to understand the relationship between some, but not all, cellular properties used to define cell types. We uncover gene expression correlates of laminar innervation on multiple transcriptomically defined neuronal subclasses and types. In particular, our results reveal correlates of the variability in Layer 1 (L1) axonal innervation in a transcriptomically defined subpopulation of Martinotti cells in the adult mouse neocortex.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - James Gornet
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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2
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Zehtabian A, Fuchs J, Eickholt BJ, Ewers H. Automated Analysis of Neuronal Morphology in 2D Fluorescence Micrographs through an Unsupervised Semantic Segmentation of Neurons. Neuroscience 2024; 551:333-344. [PMID: 38838980 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.05.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2023] [Revised: 05/17/2024] [Accepted: 05/20/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024]
Abstract
Brain function emerges from a highly complex network of specialized cells that are interlinked by billions of synapses. The synaptic connectivity between neurons is established between the elongated processes of their axons and dendrites or, together, neurites. To establish these connections, cellular neurites have to grow in highly specialized, cell-type dependent patterns covering extensive distances and connecting with thousands of other neurons. The outgrowth and branching of neurites are tightly controlled during development and are a commonly used functional readout of imaging in the neurosciences. Manual analysis of neuronal morphology from microscopy images, however, is very time intensive and prone to bias. Most automated analyses of neurons rely on reconstruction of the neuron as a whole without a semantic analysis of each neurite. A fully-automated classification of all neurites still remains unavailable in open-source software. Here we present a standalone, GUI-based software for batch-quantification of neuronal morphology in two-dimensional fluorescence micrographs of cultured neurons with minimal requirements for user interaction. Single neurons are first reconstructed into binarized images using a Hessian-based segmentation algorithm to detect thin neurite structures combined with intensity- and shape-based reconstruction of the cell body. Neurites are then classified into axon, dendrites and their branches of increasing order using a geodesic distance transform of the cell skeleton. The software was benchmarked against a published dataset and reproduced the phenotype observed after manual annotation. Our tool promises accelerated and improved morphometric studies of neuronal morphology by allowing for consistent and automated analysis of large datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amin Zehtabian
- Institute for Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Thielallee 63, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
| | - Joachim Fuchs
- Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Virchowweg 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany
| | - Britta J Eickholt
- Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Virchowweg 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany
| | - Helge Ewers
- Institute for Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Thielallee 63, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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3
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Gou L, Wang Y, Gao L, Zhong Y, Xie L, Wang H, Zha X, Shao Y, Xu H, Xu X, Yan J. Gapr for large-scale collaborative single-neuron reconstruction. Nat Methods 2024:10.1038/s41592-024-02345-z. [PMID: 38961277 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-024-02345-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024]
Abstract
Whole-brain analysis of single-neuron morphology is crucial for unraveling the complex structure of the brain. However, large-scale neuron reconstruction from terabyte and even petabyte data of mammalian brains generated by state-of-the-art light microscopy is a daunting task. Here, we developed 'Gapr' (Gapr accelerates projectome reconstruction) that streamlines deep learning-based automatic reconstruction, 'automatic proofreading' that reduces human workloads at high-confidence sites, and high-throughput collaborative proofreading by crowd users through the Internet. Furthermore, Gapr offers a seamless user interface that ensures high proofreading speed per annotator, on-demand conversion for handling large datasets, flexible workflows tailored to diverse datasets and rigorous error tracking for quality control. Finally, we demonstrated Gapr's efficacy by reconstructing over 4,000 neurons in mouse brains, revealing the morphological diversity in cortical interneurons and hypothalamic neurons. Here, we present Gapr as a solution for large-scale single-neuron reconstruction projects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lingfeng Gou
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Yanzhi Wang
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Le Gao
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Yiting Zhong
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Lucheng Xie
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Haifang Wang
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Xi Zha
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Yinqi Shao
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Huatai Xu
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaohong Xu
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, Shanghai, China
| | - Jun Yan
- Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
- Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, Shanghai, China.
- School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
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4
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Liu M, Wu S, Chen R, Lin Z, Wang Y, Meijering E. Brain Image Segmentation for Ultrascale Neuron Reconstruction via an Adaptive Dual-Task Learning Network. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MEDICAL IMAGING 2024; 43:2574-2586. [PMID: 38373129 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2024.3367384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/21/2024]
Abstract
Accurate morphological reconstruction of neurons in whole brain images is critical for brain science research. However, due to the wide range of whole brain imaging, uneven staining, and optical system fluctuations, there are significant differences in image properties between different regions of the ultrascale brain image, such as dramatically varying voxel intensities and inhomogeneous distribution of background noise, posing an enormous challenge to neuron reconstruction from whole brain images. In this paper, we propose an adaptive dual-task learning network (ADTL-Net) to quickly and accurately extract neuronal structures from ultrascale brain images. Specifically, this framework includes an External Features Classifier (EFC) and a Parameter Adaptive Segmentation Decoder (PASD), which share the same Multi-Scale Feature Encoder (MSFE). MSFE introduces an attention module named Channel Space Fusion Module (CSFM) to extract structure and intensity distribution features of neurons at different scales for addressing the problem of anisotropy in 3D space. Then, EFC is designed to classify these feature maps based on external features, such as foreground intensity distributions and image smoothness, and select specific PASD parameters to decode them of different classes to obtain accurate segmentation results. PASD contains multiple sets of parameters trained by different representative complex signal-to-noise distribution image blocks to handle various images more robustly. Experimental results prove that compared with other advanced segmentation methods for neuron reconstruction, the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art results in the task of neuron reconstruction from ultrascale brain images, with an improvement of about 49% in speed and 12% in F1 score.
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5
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Leiwe MN, Fujimoto S, Baba T, Moriyasu D, Saha B, Sakaguchi R, Inagaki S, Imai T. Automated neuronal reconstruction with super-multicolour Tetbow labelling and threshold-based clustering of colour hues. Nat Commun 2024; 15:5279. [PMID: 38918382 PMCID: PMC11199630 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49455-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Fluorescence imaging is widely used for the mesoscopic mapping of neuronal connectivity. However, neurite reconstruction is challenging, especially when neurons are densely labelled. Here, we report a strategy for the fully automated reconstruction of densely labelled neuronal circuits. Firstly, we establish stochastic super-multicolour labelling with up to seven different fluorescent proteins using the Tetbow method. With this method, each neuron is labelled with a unique combination of fluorescent proteins, which are then imaged and separated by linear unmixing. We also establish an automated neurite reconstruction pipeline based on the quantitative analysis of multiple dyes (QDyeFinder), which identifies neurite fragments with similar colour combinations. To classify colour combinations, we develop unsupervised clustering algorithm, dCrawler, in which data points in multi-dimensional space are clustered based on a given threshold distance. Our strategy allows the reconstruction of neurites for up to hundreds of neurons at the millimetre scale without using their physical continuity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcus N Leiwe
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
- MetaCell LCC, LTD, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Satoshi Fujimoto
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Toshikazu Baba
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Daichi Moriyasu
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Biswanath Saha
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Richi Sakaguchi
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Shigenori Inagaki
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Takeshi Imai
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
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6
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Park J, Wang J, Guan W, Gjesteby LA, Pollack D, Kamentsky L, Evans NB, Stirman J, Gu X, Zhao C, Marx S, Kim ME, Choi SW, Snyder M, Chavez D, Su-Arcaro C, Tian Y, Park CS, Zhang Q, Yun DH, Moukheiber M, Feng G, Yang XW, Keene CD, Hof PR, Ghosh SS, Frosch MP, Brattain LJ, Chung K. Integrated platform for multiscale molecular imaging and phenotyping of the human brain. Science 2024; 384:eadh9979. [PMID: 38870291 DOI: 10.1126/science.adh9979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2023] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 06/15/2024]
Abstract
Understanding cellular architectures and their connectivity is essential for interrogating system function and dysfunction. However, we lack technologies for mapping the multiscale details of individual cells and their connectivity in the human organ-scale system. We developed a platform that simultaneously extracts spatial, molecular, morphological, and connectivity information of individual cells from the same human brain. The platform includes three core elements: a vibrating microtome for ultraprecision slicing of large-scale tissues without losing cellular connectivity (MEGAtome), a polymer hydrogel-based tissue processing technology for multiplexed multiscale imaging of human organ-scale tissues (mELAST), and a computational pipeline for reconstructing three-dimensional connectivity across multiple brain slabs (UNSLICE). We applied this platform for analyzing human Alzheimer's disease pathology at multiple scales and demonstrating scalable neural connectivity mapping in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juhyuk Park
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Center for Nanomedicine, Institute for Basic Science, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Ji Wang
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Webster Guan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | | | | | - Lee Kamentsky
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Nicholas B Evans
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Jeff Stirman
- LifeCanvas Technologies, Cambridge, MA 02141, USA
| | - Xinyi Gu
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Chuanxi Zhao
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Slayton Marx
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Minyoung E Kim
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Seo Woo Choi
- Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | | | - David Chavez
- MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA 02421, USA
| | - Clover Su-Arcaro
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Yuxuan Tian
- Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Chang Sin Park
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
| | - Qiangge Zhang
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Dae Hee Yun
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Mira Moukheiber
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Guoping Feng
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - X William Yang
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
| | - C Dirk Keene
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98115, USA
| | - Patrick R Hof
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Center for Discovery and Innovation, and Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10019, USA
| | - Satrajit S Ghosh
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Department of Otolaryngology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Matthew P Frosch
- C. S. Kubik Laboratory for Neuropathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | | | - Kwanghun Chung
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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7
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Choi YK, Feng L, Jeong WK, Kim J. Connecto-informatics at the mesoscale: current advances in image processing and analysis for mapping the brain connectivity. Brain Inform 2024; 11:15. [PMID: 38833195 DOI: 10.1186/s40708-024-00228-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 06/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Mapping neural connections within the brain has been a fundamental goal in neuroscience to understand better its functions and changes that follow aging and diseases. Developments in imaging technology, such as microscopy and labeling tools, have allowed researchers to visualize this connectivity through high-resolution brain-wide imaging. With this, image processing and analysis have become more crucial. However, despite the wealth of neural images generated, access to an integrated image processing and analysis pipeline to process these data is challenging due to scattered information on available tools and methods. To map the neural connections, registration to atlases and feature extraction through segmentation and signal detection are necessary. In this review, our goal is to provide an updated overview of recent advances in these image-processing methods, with a particular focus on fluorescent images of the mouse brain. Our goal is to outline a pathway toward an integrated image-processing pipeline tailored for connecto-informatics. An integrated workflow of these image processing will facilitate researchers' approach to mapping brain connectivity to better understand complex brain networks and their underlying brain functions. By highlighting the image-processing tools available for fluroscent imaging of the mouse brain, this review will contribute to a deeper grasp of connecto-informatics, paving the way for better comprehension of brain connectivity and its implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoon Kyoung Choi
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, South Korea
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
| | | | - Won-Ki Jeong
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Jinhyun Kim
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, South Korea.
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
- KIST-SKKU Brain Research Center, SKKU Institute for Convergence, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, South Korea.
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8
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Nourollah AM, Hassanpour H, Zehtabian A. Quantifying morphologies of developing neuronal cells using deep learning with imperfect annotations. IBRO Neurosci Rep 2024; 16:118-126. [PMID: 38282758 PMCID: PMC10820797 DOI: 10.1016/j.ibneur.2023.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 01/30/2024] Open
Abstract
The functionality of human intelligence relies on the interaction and health of neurons, hence, quantifying neuronal morphologies can be crucial for investigating the functionality of the human brain. This paper proposes a deep learning (DL) based method for segmenting and quantifying neuronal structures in fluorescence microscopy images of developing neuronal cells cultured in vitro. Compared to the majority of supervised DL-based segmentation methods that heavily rely on creating exact corresponding masks of neuronal structures for the preparation of training samples, the proposed approach allows for imperfect annotation of neurons, as it only requires tracing the centrelines of the neurites. This ability accelerates the preparation of training data by several folds. Our proposed framework is built on a modified version of PSPNet with an EfficientNet backbone pre-trained on the CityScapes dataset. To handle the imperfectness of training samples, we incorporated a weighted combination of two loss functions, namely the Dice loss and Lovász loss functions, into our network. We evaluated the proposed framework and several other state-of-the-art methods on a published dataset of approximately 900 manually quantified cultured mouse neurons. Our results indicate a close correlation between the proposed method and manual quantification in terms of neuron length and the number of branches while demonstrating improved analysis speed. Furthermore, the proposed method achieved high accuracy in neuron segmentation, as evidenced by the evaluation of the neurons' length and number of branches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amir Masoud Nourollah
- Department of Computer Engineering and Information Technology, Shahrood University of Technology, Iran
| | - Hamid Hassanpour
- Department of Computer Engineering and Information Technology, Shahrood University of Technology, Iran
| | - Amin Zehtabian
- Institute for Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
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9
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Cauzzo S, Bruno E, Boulet D, Nazac P, Basile M, Callara AL, Tozzi F, Ahluwalia A, Magliaro C, Danglot L, Vanello N. A modular framework for multi-scale tissue imaging and neuronal segmentation. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4102. [PMID: 38778027 PMCID: PMC11111705 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48146-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
The development of robust tools for segmenting cellular and sub-cellular neuronal structures lags behind the massive production of high-resolution 3D images of neurons in brain tissue. The challenges are principally related to high neuronal density and low signal-to-noise characteristics in thick samples, as well as the heterogeneity of data acquired with different imaging methods. To address this issue, we design a framework which includes sample preparation for high resolution imaging and image analysis. Specifically, we set up a method for labeling thick samples and develop SENPAI, a scalable algorithm for segmenting neurons at cellular and sub-cellular scales in conventional and super-resolution STimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy images of brain tissues. Further, we propose a validation paradigm for testing segmentation performance when a manual ground-truth may not exhaustively describe neuronal arborization. We show that SENPAI provides accurate multi-scale segmentation, from entire neurons down to spines, outperforming state-of-the-art tools. The framework will empower image processing of complex neuronal circuitries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Cauzzo
- Research Center "E. Piaggio", University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
- Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Unit, Center for Rare Neurological Diseases (ERN-RND), Department of Neurosciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
| | - Ester Bruno
- Research Center "E. Piaggio", University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - David Boulet
- Université Paris Cité, Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP), INSERM U1266, NeurImag Core Facility, 75014, Paris, France
- Université Paris Cité, Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP), INSERM U1266, Membrane traffic and diseased brain, 75014, Paris, France
| | - Paul Nazac
- Université Paris Cité, Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP), INSERM U1266, Membrane traffic and diseased brain, 75014, Paris, France
| | - Miriam Basile
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Alejandro Luis Callara
- Research Center "E. Piaggio", University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Federico Tozzi
- Research Center "E. Piaggio", University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Arti Ahluwalia
- Research Center "E. Piaggio", University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Chiara Magliaro
- Research Center "E. Piaggio", University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Lydia Danglot
- Université Paris Cité, Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP), INSERM U1266, NeurImag Core Facility, 75014, Paris, France.
- Université Paris Cité, Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP), INSERM U1266, Membrane traffic and diseased brain, 75014, Paris, France.
| | - Nicola Vanello
- Research Center "E. Piaggio", University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
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10
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Tudi A, Yao M, Tang F, Zhou J, Li A, Gong H, Jiang T, Li X. Subregion preference in the long-range connectome of pyramidal neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex. BMC Biol 2024; 22:95. [PMID: 38679719 PMCID: PMC11057135 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-024-01880-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in complex functions containing multiple types of neurons in distinct subregions with preferential roles. The pyramidal neurons had wide-range projections to cortical and subcortical regions with subregional preferences. Using a combination of viral tracing and fluorescence micro-optical sectioning tomography (fMOST) in transgenic mice, we systematically dissected the whole-brain connectomes of intratelencephalic (IT) and pyramidal tract (PT) neurons in four mPFC subregions. RESULTS IT and PT neurons of the same subregion projected to different target areas while receiving inputs from similar upstream regions with quantitative differences. IT and PT neurons all project to the amygdala and basal forebrain, but their axons target different subregions. Compared to subregions in the prelimbic area (PL) which have more connections with sensorimotor-related regions, the infralimbic area (ILA) has stronger connections with limbic regions. The connection pattern of the mPFC subregions along the anterior-posterior axis showed a corresponding topological pattern with the isocortex and amygdala but an opposite orientation correspondence with the thalamus. CONCLUSIONS By using transgenic mice and fMOST imaging, we obtained the subregional preference whole-brain connectomes of IT and pyramidal tract PT neurons in the mPFC four subregions. These results provide a comprehensive resource for directing research into the complex functions of the mPFC by offering anatomical dissections of the different subregions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayizuohere Tudi
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Mei Yao
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Feifang Tang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Jiandong Zhou
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Anan Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI, Suzhou, China
| | - Hui Gong
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI, Suzhou, China
| | - Tao Jiang
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI, Suzhou, China.
| | - Xiangning Li
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI, Suzhou, China.
- State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, China.
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11
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Zeng Y, Wang Y. Complete Neuron Reconstruction Based on Branch Confidence. Brain Sci 2024; 14:396. [PMID: 38672045 PMCID: PMC11047972 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14040396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2024] [Revised: 04/04/2024] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
In the past few years, significant advancements in microscopic imaging technology have led to the production of numerous high-resolution images capturing brain neurons at the micrometer scale. The reconstructed structure of neurons from neuronal images can serve as a valuable reference for research in brain diseases and neuroscience. Currently, there lacks an accurate and efficient method for neuron reconstruction. Manual reconstruction remains the primary approach, offering high accuracy but requiring significant time investment. While some automatic reconstruction methods are faster, they often sacrifice accuracy and cannot be directly relied upon. Therefore, the primary goal of this paper is to develop a neuron reconstruction tool that is both efficient and accurate. The tool aids users in reconstructing complete neurons by calculating the confidence of branches during the reconstruction process. The method models the neuron reconstruction as multiple Markov chains, and calculates the confidence of the connections between branches by simulating the reconstruction artifacts in the results. Users iteratively modify low-confidence branches to ensure precise and efficient neuron reconstruction. Experiments on both the publicly accessible BigNeuron dataset and a self-created Whole-Brain dataset demonstrate that the tool achieves high accuracy similar to manual reconstruction, while significantly reducing reconstruction time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Zeng
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China;
- Guangdong Institute of Intelligence Science and Technology, Zhuhai 519031, China
| | - Yimin Wang
- Guangdong Institute of Intelligence Science and Technology, Zhuhai 519031, China
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12
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Caznok Silveira AC, Antunes ASLM, Athié MCP, da Silva BF, Ribeiro dos Santos JV, Canateli C, Fontoura MA, Pinto A, Pimentel-Silva LR, Avansini SH, de Carvalho M. Between neurons and networks: investigating mesoscale brain connectivity in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Front Neurosci 2024; 18:1340345. [PMID: 38445254 PMCID: PMC10912403 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1340345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024] Open
Abstract
The study of brain connectivity has been a cornerstone in understanding the complexities of neurological and psychiatric disorders. It has provided invaluable insights into the functional architecture of the brain and how it is perturbed in disorders. However, a persistent challenge has been achieving the proper spatial resolution, and developing computational algorithms to address biological questions at the multi-cellular level, a scale often referred to as the mesoscale. Historically, neuroimaging studies of brain connectivity have predominantly focused on the macroscale, providing insights into inter-regional brain connections but often falling short of resolving the intricacies of neural circuitry at the cellular or mesoscale level. This limitation has hindered our ability to fully comprehend the underlying mechanisms of neurological and psychiatric disorders and to develop targeted interventions. In light of this issue, our review manuscript seeks to bridge this critical gap by delving into the domain of mesoscale neuroimaging. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of conditions affected by aberrant neural connections, image acquisition techniques, feature extraction, and data analysis methods that are specifically tailored to the mesoscale. We further delineate the potential of brain connectivity research to elucidate complex biological questions, with a particular focus on schizophrenia and epilepsy. This review encompasses topics such as dendritic spine quantification, single neuron morphology, and brain region connectivity. We aim to showcase the applicability and significance of mesoscale neuroimaging techniques in the field of neuroscience, highlighting their potential for gaining insights into the complexities of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Clara Caznok Silveira
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
| | | | - Maria Carolina Pedro Athié
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Bárbara Filomena da Silva
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | | | - Camila Canateli
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Marina Alves Fontoura
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Allan Pinto
- Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | | | - Simoni Helena Avansini
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Murilo de Carvalho
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
- Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
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13
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Ning K, Lu B, Wang X, Zhang X, Nie S, Jiang T, Li A, Fan G, Wang X, Luo Q, Gong H, Yuan J. Deep self-learning enables fast, high-fidelity isotropic resolution restoration for volumetric fluorescence microscopy. LIGHT, SCIENCE & APPLICATIONS 2023; 12:204. [PMID: 37640721 PMCID: PMC10462670 DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01230-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Revised: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 07/12/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
One intrinsic yet critical issue that troubles the field of fluorescence microscopy ever since its introduction is the unmatched resolution in the lateral and axial directions (i.e., resolution anisotropy), which severely deteriorates the quality, reconstruction, and analysis of 3D volume images. By leveraging the natural anisotropy, we present a deep self-learning method termed Self-Net that significantly improves the resolution of axial images by using the lateral images from the same raw dataset as rational targets. By incorporating unsupervised learning for realistic anisotropic degradation and supervised learning for high-fidelity isotropic recovery, our method can effectively suppress the hallucination with substantially enhanced image quality compared to previously reported methods. In the experiments, we show that Self-Net can reconstruct high-fidelity isotropic 3D images from organelle to tissue levels via raw images from various microscopy platforms, e.g., wide-field, laser-scanning, or super-resolution microscopy. For the first time, Self-Net enables isotropic whole-brain imaging at a voxel resolution of 0.2 × 0.2 × 0.2 μm3, which addresses the last-mile problem of data quality in single-neuron morphology visualization and reconstruction with minimal effort and cost. Overall, Self-Net is a promising approach to overcoming the inherent resolution anisotropy for all classes of 3D fluorescence microscopy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kefu Ning
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China
| | - Bolin Lu
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China
| | - Xiaojun Wang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, China
| | - Xiaoyu Zhang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Shuo Nie
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Tao Jiang
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China
| | - Anan Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China
| | - Guoqing Fan
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Xiaofeng Wang
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China
| | - Qingming Luo
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, China
| | - Hui Gong
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China.
| | - Jing Yuan
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China.
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14
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Ding L, Zhao X, Guo S, Liu Y, Liu L, Wang Y, Peng H. SNAP: a structure-based neuron morphology reconstruction automatic pruning pipeline. Front Neuroinform 2023; 17:1174049. [PMID: 37388757 PMCID: PMC10303825 DOI: 10.3389/fninf.2023.1174049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Neuron morphology analysis is an essential component of neuron cell-type definition. Morphology reconstruction represents a bottleneck in high-throughput morphology analysis workflow, and erroneous extra reconstruction owing to noise and entanglements in dense neuron regions restricts the usability of automated reconstruction results. We propose SNAP, a structure-based neuron morphology reconstruction pruning pipeline, to improve the usability of results by reducing erroneous extra reconstruction and splitting entangled neurons. Methods For the four different types of erroneous extra segments in reconstruction (caused by noise in the background, entanglement with dendrites of close-by neurons, entanglement with axons of other neurons, and entanglement within the same neuron), SNAP incorporates specific statistical structure information into rules for erroneous extra segment detection and achieves pruning and multiple dendrite splitting. Results Experimental results show that this pipeline accomplishes pruning with satisfactory precision and recall. It also demonstrates good multiple neuron-splitting performance. As an effective tool for post-processing reconstruction, SNAP can facilitate neuron morphology analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liya Ding
- Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Xuan Zhao
- Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Shuxia Guo
- Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yufeng Liu
- Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Lijuan Liu
- Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yimin Wang
- Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
- Guangdong Institute of Intelligence Science and Technology, Zhuhai, China
| | - Hanchuan Peng
- Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
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15
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Cai R, Kolabas ZI, Pan C, Mai H, Zhao S, Kaltenecker D, Voigt FF, Molbay M, Ohn TL, Vincke C, Todorov MI, Helmchen F, Van Ginderachter JA, Ertürk A. Whole-mouse clearing and imaging at the cellular level with vDISCO. Nat Protoc 2023; 18:1197-1242. [PMID: 36697871 DOI: 10.1038/s41596-022-00788-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2021] [Accepted: 10/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Homeostatic and pathological phenomena often affect multiple organs across the whole organism. Tissue clearing methods, together with recent advances in microscopy, have made holistic examinations of biological samples feasible. Here, we report the detailed protocol for nanobody(VHH)-boosted 3D imaging of solvent-cleared organs (vDISCO), a pressure-driven, nanobody-based whole-body immunolabeling and clearing method that renders whole mice transparent in 3 weeks, consistently enhancing the signal of fluorescent proteins, stabilizing them for years. This allows the reliable detection and quantification of fluorescent signal in intact rodents enabling the analysis of an entire body at cellular resolution. Here, we show the high versatility of vDISCO applied to boost the fluorescence signal of genetically expressed reporters and clear multiple dissected organs and tissues, as well as how to image processed samples using multiple fluorescence microscopy systems. The entire protocol is accessible to laboratories with limited expertise in tissue clearing. In addition to its applications in obtaining a whole-mouse neuronal projection map, detecting single-cell metastases in whole mice and identifying previously undescribed anatomical structures, we further show the visualization of the entire mouse lymphatic system, the application for virus tracing and the visualization of all pericytes in the brain. Taken together, our vDISCO pipeline allows systematic and comprehensive studies of cellular phenomena and connectivity in whole bodies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruiyao Cai
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Zeynep Ilgin Kolabas
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN), Munich, Germany
| | - Chenchen Pan
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Hongcheng Mai
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Shan Zhao
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Doris Kaltenecker
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Diabetes and Cancer, Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Fabian F Voigt
- Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Muge Molbay
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Tzu-Lun Ohn
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Cécile Vincke
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.,Myeloid Cell Immunology Lab, VIB Center for Inflammation Research, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Mihail I Todorov
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany.,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Fritjof Helmchen
- Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Jo A Van Ginderachter
- Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.,Myeloid Cell Immunology Lab, VIB Center for Inflammation Research, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Ali Ertürk
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM), Helmholtz Munich, Munich, Germany. .,Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany. .,Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany.
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16
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Liu Y, Zhong Y, Zhao X, Liu L, Ding L, Peng H. Tracing weak neuron fibers. Bioinformatics 2022; 39:6960919. [PMID: 36571479 PMCID: PMC9848051 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btac816] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Revised: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 12/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Precise reconstruction of neuronal arbors is important for circuitry mapping. Many auto-tracing algorithms have been developed toward full reconstruction. However, it is still challenging to trace the weak signals of neurite fibers that often correspond to axons. RESULTS We proposed a method, named the NeuMiner, for tracing weak fibers by combining two strategies: an online sample mining strategy and a modified gamma transformation. NeuMiner improved the recall of weak signals (voxel values <20) by a large margin, from 5.1 to 27.8%. This is prominent for axons, which increased by 6.4 times, compared to 2.0 times for dendrites. Both strategies were shown to be beneficial for weak fiber recognition, and they reduced the average axonal spatial distances to gold standards by 46 and 13%, respectively. The improvement was observed on two prevalent automatic tracing algorithms and can be applied to any other tracers and image types. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION Source codes of NeuMiner are freely available on GitHub (https://github.com/crazylyf/neuronet/tree/semantic_fnm). Image visualization, preprocessing and tracing are conducted on the Vaa3D platform, which is accessible at the Vaa3D GitHub repository (https://github.com/Vaa3D). All training and testing images are cropped from high-resolution fMOST mouse brains downloaded from the Brain Image Library (https://www.brainimagelibrary.org/), and the corresponding gold standards are available at https://doi.brainimagelibrary.org/doi/10.35077/g.25. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yufeng Liu
- SEU-ALLEN Joint Center, Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China
| | - Ye Zhong
- SEU-ALLEN Joint Center, Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China
| | - Xuan Zhao
- SEU-ALLEN Joint Center, Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China
| | - Lijuan Liu
- SEU-ALLEN Joint Center, Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China
| | - Liya Ding
- SEU-ALLEN Joint Center, Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China
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17
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Liu Y, Wang G, Ascoli GA, Zhou J, Liu L. Neuron tracing from light microscopy images: automation, deep learning and bench testing. Bioinformatics 2022; 38:5329-5339. [PMID: 36303315 PMCID: PMC9750132 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btac712] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2022] [Revised: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 10/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Large-scale neuronal morphologies are essential to neuronal typing, connectivity characterization and brain modeling. It is widely accepted that automation is critical to the production of neuronal morphology. Despite previous survey papers about neuron tracing from light microscopy data in the last decade, thanks to the rapid development of the field, there is a need to update recent progress in a review focusing on new methods and remarkable applications. RESULTS This review outlines neuron tracing in various scenarios with the goal to help the community understand and navigate tools and resources. We describe the status, examples and accessibility of automatic neuron tracing. We survey recent advances of the increasingly popular deep-learning enhanced methods. We highlight the semi-automatic methods for single neuron tracing of mammalian whole brains as well as the resulting datasets, each containing thousands of full neuron morphologies. Finally, we exemplify the commonly used datasets and metrics for neuron tracing bench testing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yufeng Liu
- School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Gaoyu Wang
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Giorgio A Ascoli
- Center for Neural Informatics, Structures, & Plasticity, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
| | - Jiangning Zhou
- Institute of Brain Science, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Lijuan Liu
- School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
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18
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Ghahremani P, Boorboor S, Mirhosseini P, Gudisagar C, Ananth M, Talmage D, Role LW, Kaufman AE. NeuroConstruct: 3D Reconstruction and Visualization of Neurites in Optical Microscopy Brain Images. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS 2022; 28:4951-4965. [PMID: 34478372 DOI: 10.1109/tvcg.2021.3109460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
We introduce NeuroConstruct, a novel end-to-end application for the segmentation, registration, and visualization of brain volumes imaged using wide-field microscopy. NeuroConstruct offers a Segmentation Toolbox with various annotation helper functions that aid experts to effectively and precisely annotate micrometer resolution neurites. It also offers an automatic neurites segmentation using convolutional neuronal networks (CNN) trained by the Toolbox annotations and somas segmentation using thresholding. To visualize neurites in a given volume, NeuroConstruct offers a hybrid rendering by combining iso-surface rendering of high-confidence classified neurites, along with real-time rendering of raw volume using a 2D transfer function for voxel classification score versus voxel intensity value. For a complete reconstruction of the 3D neurites, we introduce a Registration Toolbox that provides automatic coarse-to-fine alignment of serially sectioned samples. The quantitative and qualitative analysis show that NeuroConstruct outperforms the state-of-the-art in all design aspects. NeuroConstruct was developed as a collaboration between computer scientists and neuroscientists, with an application to the study of cholinergic neurons, which are severely affected in Alzheimer's disease.
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19
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Yayon N, Amsalem O, Zorbaz T, Yakov O, Dubnov S, Winek K, Dudai A, Adam G, Schmidtner AK, Tessier‐Lavigne M, Renier N, Habib N, Segev I, London M, Soreq H. High-throughput morphometric and transcriptomic profiling uncovers composition of naïve and sensory-deprived cortical cholinergic VIP/CHAT neurons. EMBO J 2022; 42:e110565. [PMID: 36377476 PMCID: PMC9811618 DOI: 10.15252/embj.2021110565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2021] [Revised: 10/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Cortical neuronal networks control cognitive output, but their composition and modulation remain elusive. Here, we studied the morphological and transcriptional diversity of cortical cholinergic VIP/ChAT interneurons (VChIs), a sparse population with a largely unknown function. We focused on VChIs from the whole barrel cortex and developed a high-throughput automated reconstruction framework, termed PopRec, to characterize hundreds of VChIs from each mouse in an unbiased manner, while preserving 3D cortical coordinates in multiple cleared mouse brains, accumulating thousands of cells. We identified two fundamentally distinct morphological types of VChIs, bipolar and multipolar that differ in their cortical distribution and general morphological features. Following mild unilateral whisker deprivation on postnatal day seven, we found after three weeks both ipsi- and contralateral dendritic arborization differences and modified cortical depth and distribution patterns in the barrel fields alone. To seek the transcriptomic drivers, we developed NuNeX, a method for isolating nuclei from fixed tissues, to explore sorted VChIs. This highlighted differentially expressed neuronal structural transcripts, altered exitatory innervation pathways and established Elmo1 as a key regulator of morphology following deprivation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadav Yayon
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Biological Chemistry, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Oren Amsalem
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Neurobiology, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Tamara Zorbaz
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Biological Chemistry, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,Biochemistry and Organic Analytical Chemistry UnitThe Institute of Medical Research and Occupational HealthZagrebCroatia
| | - Or Yakov
- The Department of Biological Chemistry, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Serafima Dubnov
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Biological Chemistry, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Katarzyna Winek
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Biological Chemistry, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Amir Dudai
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Neurobiology, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Gil Adam
- The Department of Biological Chemistry, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Anna K Schmidtner
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | | | - Nicolas Renier
- Sorbonne Université, Paris Brain Institute ‐ ICM, INSERM, CNRS, AP‐HP, Hôpital de la Pitié SalpêtrièreParisFrance
| | - Naomi Habib
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Neurobiology, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Idan Segev
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Neurobiology, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Michael London
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Neurobiology, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
| | - Hermona Soreq
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael,The Department of Biological Chemistry, The Life Sciences InstituteThe Hebrew University of JerusalemJerusalemIsrael
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20
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Räsänen N, Harju V, Joki T, Narkilahti S. Practical guide for preparation, computational reconstruction and analysis of 3D human neuronal networks in control and ischaemic conditions. Development 2022; 149:276215. [PMID: 35929583 PMCID: PMC9440753 DOI: 10.1242/dev.200012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2021] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
To obtain commensurate numerical data of neuronal network morphology in vitro, network analysis needs to follow consistent guidelines. Important factors in successful analysis are sample uniformity, suitability of the analysis method for extracting relevant data and the use of established metrics. However, for the analysis of 3D neuronal cultures, there is little coherence in the analysis methods and metrics used in different studies. Here, we present a framework for the analysis of neuronal networks in 3D. First, we selected a hydrogel that supported the growth of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cortical neurons. Second, we tested and compared two software programs for tracing multi-neuron images in three dimensions and optimized a workflow for neuronal analysis using software that was considered highly suitable for this purpose. Third, as a proof of concept, we exposed 3D neuronal networks to oxygen-glucose deprivation- and ionomycin-induced damage and showed morphological differences between the damaged networks and control samples utilizing the proposed analysis workflow. With the optimized workflow, we present a protocol for preparing, challenging, imaging and analysing 3D human neuronal cultures. Summary: An optimized protocol is presented that allows morphological, quantifiable differences between the damaged and control human neuronal networks to be detected in three-dimensional cultures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noora Räsänen
- Tampere University, 33100, Tampere Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology , , Finland
| | - Venla Harju
- Tampere University, 33100, Tampere Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology , , Finland
| | - Tiina Joki
- Tampere University, 33100, Tampere Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology , , Finland
| | - Susanna Narkilahti
- Tampere University, 33100, Tampere Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology , , Finland
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21
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Zhou H, Cao T, Liu T, Liu S, Chen L, Chen Y, Huang Q, Ye W, Zeng S, Quan T. Super-resolution Segmentation Network for Reconstruction of Packed Neurites. Neuroinformatics 2022; 20:1155-1167. [PMID: 35851944 DOI: 10.1007/s12021-022-09594-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/05/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Neuron reconstruction can provide the quantitative data required for measuring the neuronal morphology and is crucial in brain research. However, the difficulty in reconstructing dense neurites, wherein massive labor is required for accurate reconstruction in most cases, has not been well resolved. In this work, we provide a new pathway for solving this challenge by proposing the super-resolution segmentation network (SRSNet), which builds the mapping of the neurites in the original neuronal images and their segmentation in a higher-resolution (HR) space. During the segmentation process, the distances between the boundaries of the packed neurites are enlarged, and only the central parts of the neurites are segmented. Owing to this strategy, the super-resolution segmented images are produced for subsequent reconstruction. We carried out experiments on neuronal images with a voxel size of 0.2 μm × 0.2 μm × 1 μm produced by fMOST. SRSNet achieves an average F1 score of 0.88 for automatic packed neurites reconstruction, which takes both the precision and recall values into account, while the average F1 scores of other state-of-the-art automatic tracing methods are less than 0.70.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hang Zhou
- School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Tingting Cao
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China
| | - Tian Liu
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China
| | - Shijie Liu
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China
| | - Lu Chen
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China
| | - Yijun Chen
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China
| | - Qing Huang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China
| | - Wei Ye
- School of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Shaoqun Zeng
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China
| | - Tingwei Quan
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China. .,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China.
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22
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Park H, Na M, Kim B, Park S, Kim KH, Chang S, Ye JC. Deep learning enables reference-free isotropic super-resolution for volumetric fluorescence microscopy. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3297. [PMID: 35676288 PMCID: PMC9178036 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30949-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2021] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Volumetric imaging by fluorescence microscopy is often limited by anisotropic spatial resolution, in which the axial resolution is inferior to the lateral resolution. To address this problem, we present a deep-learning-enabled unsupervised super-resolution technique that enhances anisotropic images in volumetric fluorescence microscopy. In contrast to the existing deep learning approaches that require matched high-resolution target images, our method greatly reduces the effort to be put into practice as the training of a network requires only a single 3D image stack, without a priori knowledge of the image formation process, registration of training data, or separate acquisition of target data. This is achieved based on the optimal transport-driven cycle-consistent generative adversarial network that learns from an unpaired matching between high-resolution 2D images in the lateral image plane and low-resolution 2D images in other planes. Using fluorescence confocal microscopy and light-sheet microscopy, we demonstrate that the trained network not only enhances axial resolution but also restores suppressed visual details between the imaging planes and removes imaging artifacts. Volumetric fluorescence microscopy is often limited by anisotropic spatial resolution. Here, the authors present an unsupervised deep-learning approach that enhances axial resolution by learning from high-resolution lateral images, and demonstrate isotropic resolution and restoration of suppressed visual details.
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23
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Hidden Markov modeling for maximum probability neuron reconstruction. Commun Biol 2022; 5:388. [PMID: 35468989 PMCID: PMC9038756 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03320-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent advances in brain clearing and imaging have made it possible to image entire mammalian brains at sub-micron resolution. These images offer the potential to assemble brain-wide atlases of neuron morphology, but manual neuron reconstruction remains a bottleneck. Several automatic reconstruction algorithms exist, but most focus on single neuron images. In this paper, we present a probabilistic reconstruction method, ViterBrain, which combines a hidden Markov state process that encodes neuron geometry with a random field appearance model of neuron fluorescence. ViterBrain utilizes dynamic programming to compute the global maximizer of what we call the most probable neuron path. We applied our algorithm to imperfect image segmentations, and showed that it can follow axons in the presence of noise or nearby neurons. We also provide an interactive framework where users can trace neurons by fixing start and endpoints. ViterBrain is available in our open-source Python package brainlit. ViterBrain is an automated probabilistic reconstruction method that can reconstruct neuronal geometry and processes from microscopy images with code available in the open-source Python package, brainlit.
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24
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Yang B, Liu M, Wang Y, Zhang K, Meijering E. Structure-Guided Segmentation for 3D Neuron Reconstruction. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MEDICAL IMAGING 2022; 41:903-914. [PMID: 34748483 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2021.3125777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Digital reconstruction of neuronal morphologies in 3D microscopy images is critical in the field of neuroscience. However, most existing automatic tracing algorithms cannot obtain accurate neuron reconstruction when processing 3D neuron images contaminated by strong background noises or containing weak filament signals. In this paper, we present a 3D neuron segmentation network named Structure-Guided Segmentation Network (SGSNet) to enhance weak neuronal structures and remove background noises. The network contains a shared encoding path but utilizes two decoding paths called Main Segmentation Branch (MSB) and Structure-Detection Branch (SDB), respectively. MSB is trained on binary labels to acquire the 3D neuron image segmentation maps. However, the segmentation results in challenging datasets often contain structural errors, such as discontinued segments of the weak-signal neuronal structures and missing filaments due to low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Therefore, SDB is presented to detect the neuronal structures by regressing neuron distance transform maps. Furthermore, a Structure Attention Module (SAM) is designed to integrate the multi-scale feature maps of the two decoding paths, and provide contextual guidance of structural features from SDB to MSB to improve the final segmentation performance. In the experiments, we evaluate our model in two challenging 3D neuron image datasets, the BigNeuron dataset and the Extended Whole Mouse Brain Sub-image (EWMBS) dataset. When using different tracing methods on the segmented images produced by our method rather than other state-of-the-art segmentation methods, the distance scores gain 42.48% and 35.83% improvement in the BigNeuron dataset and 37.75% and 23.13% in the EWMBS dataset.
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25
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Brain-wide projection reconstruction of single functionally defined neurons. Nat Commun 2022; 13:1531. [PMID: 35318336 PMCID: PMC8940919 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29229-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2021] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Reconstructing axonal projections of single neurons at the whole-brain level is currently a converging goal of the neuroscience community that is fundamental for understanding the logic of information flow in the brain. Thousands of single neurons from different brain regions have recently been morphologically reconstructed, but the corresponding physiological functional features of these reconstructed neurons are unclear. By combining two-photon Ca2+ imaging with targeted single-cell plasmid electroporation, we reconstruct the brain-wide morphologies of single neurons that are defined by a sound-evoked response map in the auditory cortices (AUDs) of awake mice. Long-range interhemispheric projections can be reliably labelled via co-injection with an adeno-associated virus, which enables enhanced expression of indicator protein in the targeted neurons. Here we show that this method avoids the randomness and ambiguity of conventional methods of neuronal morphological reconstruction, offering an avenue for developing a precise one-to-one map of neuronal projection patterns and physiological functional features. Brain-wide axonal projections of single neurons have been extensively reconstructed without any functional characterization. The authors present a method that allows for developing a precise one-to-one map of both projection patterns and functional features of single neurons in mice.
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26
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Windoffer R, Schwarz N, Yoon S, Piskova T, Scholkemper M, Stegmaier J, Bönsch A, Di Russo J, Leube R. Quantitative mapping of keratin networks in 3D. eLife 2022; 11:75894. [PMID: 35179484 PMCID: PMC8979588 DOI: 10.7554/elife.75894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Mechanobiology requires precise quantitative information on processes taking place in specific 3D microenvironments. Connecting the abundance of microscopical, molecular, biochemical, and cell mechanical data with defined topologies has turned out to be extremely difficult. Establishing such structural and functional 3D maps needed for biophysical modeling is a particular challenge for the cytoskeleton, which consists of long and interwoven filamentous polymers coordinating subcellular processes and interactions of cells with their environment. To date, useful tools are available for the segmentation and modeling of actin filaments and microtubules but comprehensive tools for the mapping of intermediate filament organization are still lacking. In this work, we describe a workflow to model and examine the complete 3D arrangement of the keratin intermediate filament cytoskeleton in canine, murine, and human epithelial cells both, in vitro and in vivo. Numerical models are derived from confocal airyscan high-resolution 3D imaging of fluorescence-tagged keratin filaments. They are interrogated and annotated at different length scales using different modes of visualization including immersive virtual reality. In this way, information is provided on network organization at the subcellular level including mesh arrangement, density and isotropic configuration as well as details on filament morphology such as bundling, curvature, and orientation. We show that the comparison of these parameters helps to identify, in quantitative terms, similarities and differences of keratin network organization in epithelial cell types defining subcellular domains, notably basal, apical, lateral, and perinuclear systems. The described approach and the presented data are pivotal for generating mechanobiological models that can be experimentally tested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reinhard Windoffer
- Institute of Molecular and Cellular Anatomy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Nicole Schwarz
- Institute of Molecular and Cellular Anatomy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Sungjun Yoon
- Institute of Molecular and Cellular Anatomy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Teodora Piskova
- Institute of Molecular and Cellular Anatomy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | | | - Johannes Stegmaier
- Institute of Imaging and Computer Vision, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Andrea Bönsch
- Visual Computing Institute, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Jacopo Di Russo
- Interdisciplinary Centre for Clinical Research, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Rudolf Leube
- Institute of Molecular and Cellular Anatomy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
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27
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Richardson DS, Guan W, Matsumoto K, Pan C, Chung K, Ertürk A, Ueda HR, Lichtman JW. TISSUE CLEARING. NATURE REVIEWS. METHODS PRIMERS 2022; 1. [PMID: 35128463 DOI: 10.1038/s43586-021-00080-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Tissue clearing of gross anatomical samples was first described over a century ago and has only recently found widespread use in the field of microscopy. This renaissance has been driven by the application of modern knowledge of optical physics and chemical engineering to the development of robust and reproducible clearing techniques, the arrival of new microscopes that can image large samples at cellular resolution and computing infrastructure able to store and analyze large data volumes. Many biological relationships between structure and function require investigation in three dimensions and tissue clearing therefore has the potential to enable broad discoveries in the biological sciences. Unfortunately, the current literature is complex and could confuse researchers looking to begin a clearing project. The goal of this Primer is to outline a modular approach to tissue clearing that allows a novice researcher to develop a customized clearing pipeline tailored to their tissue of interest. Further, the Primer outlines the required imaging and computational infrastructure needed to perform tissue clearing at scale, gives an overview of current applications, discusses limitations and provides an outlook on future advances in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Douglas S Richardson
- Harvard Center for Biological Imaging, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Webster Guan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Katsuhiko Matsumoto
- Department of Systems Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.,Laboratory for Synthetic Biology, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Osaka, Japan
| | - Chenchen Pan
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN), Munich, Germany.,Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany
| | - Kwanghun Chung
- Department of Systems Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.,Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Broad Institute of Harvard University and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Center for Nanomedicine, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, Republic of Korea.,Nano Biomedical Engineering (Nano BME) Graduate Program, Yonsei-IBS Institute, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Ali Ertürk
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN), Munich, Germany.,Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany
| | - Hiroki R Ueda
- Department of Systems Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.,Laboratory for Synthetic Biology, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Osaka, Japan
| | - Jeff W Lichtman
- Harvard Center for Biological Imaging, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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28
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Huang Q, Cao T, Zeng S, Li A, Quan T. Minimizing probability graph connectivity cost for discontinuous filamentary structures tracing in neuron image. IEEE J Biomed Health Inform 2022; 26:3092-3103. [PMID: 35104232 DOI: 10.1109/jbhi.2022.3147512] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Neuron tracing from optical image is critical in understanding brain function in diseases. A key problem is to trace discontinuous filamentary structures from noisy background, which is commonly encountered in neuronal and some medical images. Broken traces lead to cumulative topological errors, and current methods were hard to assemble various fragmentary traces for correct connection. In this paper, we propose a graph connectivity theoretical method for precise filamentary structure tracing in neuron image. First, we build the initial subgraphs of signals via a region-to-region based tracing method on CNN predicted probability. CNN technique removes noise interference, whereas its prediction for some elongated fragments is still incomplete. Second, we reformulate the global connection problem of individual or fragmented subgraphs under heuristic graph restrictions as a dynamic linear programming function via minimizing graph connectivity cost, where the connected cost of breakpoints are calculated using their probability strength via minimum cost path. Experimental results on challenging neuronal images proved that the proposed method outperformed existing methods and achieved similar results of manual tracing, even in some complex discontinuous issues. Performances on vessel images indicate the potential of the method for some other tubular objects tracing.
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29
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Zhang H, Wang X, Guo W, Li A, Chen R, Huang F, Liu X, Chen Y, Li N, Liu X, Xu T, Xue Z, Zeng S. Cross-Streams Through the Ventral Posteromedial Thalamic Nucleus to Convey Vibrissal Information. Front Neuroanat 2021; 15:724861. [PMID: 34776879 PMCID: PMC8582278 DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2021.724861] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2021] [Accepted: 09/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Whisker detection is crucial to adapt to the environment for some animals, but how the nervous system processes and integrates whisker information is still an open question. It is well-known that two main parallel pathways through Ventral posteromedial thalamic nucleus (VPM) ascend to the barrel cortex, and classical theory suggests that the cross-talk from trigeminal nucleus interpolaris (Sp5i) to principal nucleus (Pr5) between the main parallel pathways contributes to the multi-whisker integration in barrel columns. Moreover, some studies suggest there are other cross-streams between the parallel pathways. To confirm their existence, in this study we used a dual-viral labeling strategy and high-resolution, large-volume light imaging to get the complete morphology of individual VPM neurons and trace their projections. We found some new thalamocortical projections from the ventral lateral part of VPM (VPMvl) to barrel columns. In addition, the retrograde-viral labeling and imaging results showed there were the large trigeminothalamic projections from Sp5i to the dorsomedial section of VPM (VPMdm). Our results reveal new cross-streams between the parallel pathways through VPM, which may involve the execution of multi-whisker integration in barrel columns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huimin Zhang
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Xiaojun Wang
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Wenyan Guo
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Anan Li
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Ruixi Chen
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Fei Huang
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Xiaoxiang Liu
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Yijun Chen
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Ning Li
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Xiuli Liu
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Tonghui Xu
- Department of Laboratory Animal Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Zheng Xue
- Department of Neurology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Shaoqun Zeng
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,Britton Chance Center and MOE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
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30
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Liu S, Huang Q, Quan T, Zeng S, Li H. Foreground Estimation in Neuronal Images With a Sparse-Smooth Model for Robust Quantification. Front Neuroanat 2021; 15:716718. [PMID: 34764857 PMCID: PMC8576439 DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2021.716718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
3D volume imaging has been regarded as a basic tool to explore the organization and function of the neuronal system. Foreground estimation from neuronal image is essential in the quantification and analysis of neuronal image such as soma counting, neurite tracing and neuron reconstruction. However, the complexity of neuronal structure itself and differences in the imaging procedure, including different optical systems and biological labeling methods, result in various and complex neuronal images, which greatly challenge foreground estimation from neuronal image. In this study, we propose a robust sparse-smooth model (RSSM) to separate the foreground and the background of neuronal image. The model combines the different smoothness levels of the foreground and the background, and the sparsity of the foreground. These prior constraints together contribute to the robustness of foreground estimation from a variety of neuronal images. We demonstrate the proposed RSSM method could promote some best available tools to trace neurites or locate somas from neuronal images with their default parameters, and the quantified results are similar or superior to the results that generated from the original images. The proposed method is proved to be robust in the foreground estimation from different neuronal images, and helps to improve the usability of current quantitative tools on various neuronal images with several applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shijie Liu
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Qing Huang
- School of Computer Science and Engineering/Artificial Intelligence, Hubei Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robot, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Tingwei Quan
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Shaoqun Zeng
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Hongwei Li
- School of Mathematics and Physics, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
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31
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Chen X, Zhang C, Zhao J, Xiong Z, Zha ZJ, Wu F. Weakly Supervised Neuron Reconstruction From Optical Microscopy Images With Morphological Priors. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MEDICAL IMAGING 2021; 40:3205-3216. [PMID: 33999814 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2021.3080695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Manually labeling neurons from high-resolution but noisy and low-contrast optical microscopy (OM) images is tedious. As a result, the lack of annotated data poses a key challenge when applying deep learning techniques for reconstructing neurons from noisy and low-contrast OM images. While traditional tracing methods provide a possible way to efficiently generate labels for supervised network training, the generated pseudo-labels contain many noisy and incorrect labels, which lead to severe performance degradation. On the other hand, the publicly available dataset, BigNeuron, provides a large number of single 3D neurons that are reconstructed using various imaging paradigms and tracing methods. Though the raw OM images are not fully available for these neurons, they convey essential morphological priors for complex 3D neuron structures. In this paper, we propose a new approach to exploit morphological priors from neurons that have been reconstructed for training a deep neural network to extract neuron signals from OM images. We integrate a deep segmentation network in a generative adversarial network (GAN), expecting the segmentation network to be weakly supervised by pseudo-labels at the pixel level while utilizing the supervision of previously reconstructed neurons at the morphology level. In our morphological-prior-guided neuron reconstruction GAN, named MP-NRGAN, the segmentation network extracts neuron signals from raw images, and the discriminator network encourages the extracted neurons to follow the morphology distribution of reconstructed neurons. Comprehensive experiments on the public VISoR-40 dataset and BigNeuron dataset demonstrate that our proposed MP-NRGAN outperforms state-of-the-art approaches with less training effort.
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32
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Li Q, Shen L. Neuron segmentation using 3D wavelet integrated encoder-decoder network. Bioinformatics 2021; 38:809-817. [PMID: 34647994 PMCID: PMC8756182 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btab716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2021] [Revised: 09/13/2021] [Accepted: 10/12/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION 3D neuron segmentation is a key step for the neuron digital reconstruction, which is essential for exploring brain circuits and understanding brain functions. However, the fine line-shaped nerve fibers of neuron could spread in a large region, which brings great computational cost to the neuron segmentation. Meanwhile, the strong noises and disconnected nerve fibers bring great challenges to the task. RESULTS In this article, we propose a 3D wavelet and deep learning-based 3D neuron segmentation method. The neuronal image is first partitioned into neuronal cubes to simplify the segmentation task. Then, we design 3D WaveUNet, the first 3D wavelet integrated encoder-decoder network, to segment the nerve fibers in the cubes; the wavelets could assist the deep networks in suppressing data noises and connecting the broken fibers. We also produce a Neuronal Cube Dataset (NeuCuDa) using the biggest available annotated neuronal image dataset, BigNeuron, to train 3D WaveUNet. Finally, the nerve fibers segmented in cubes are assembled to generate the complete neuron, which is digitally reconstructed using an available automatic tracing algorithm. The experimental results show that our neuron segmentation method could completely extract the target neuron in noisy neuronal images. The integrated 3D wavelets can efficiently improve the performance of 3D neuron segmentation and reconstruction. AVAILABILITYAND IMPLEMENTATION The data and codes for this work are available at https://github.com/LiQiufu/3D-WaveUNet. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiufu Li
- Computer Vision Institute, College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China,AI Research Center for Medical Image Analysis and Diagnosis, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China,Guangdong Key Laboratory of Intelligent Information Processing, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
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Wang J, Li Y, Yu H, Li G, Bai S, Chen S, Zhang P, Tang Z. Dl-3-N-Butylphthalide Promotes Angiogenesis in an Optimized Model of Transient Ischemic Attack in C57BL/6 Mice. Front Pharmacol 2021; 12:751397. [PMID: 34658892 PMCID: PMC8513739 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2021.751397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Transient ischemic attack (TIA) has been widely regarded as a clinical entity. Even though magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results of TIA patients are negative, potential neurovascular damage might be present, and may account for long-term cognitive impairment. Animal models that simulate human diseases are essential tools for in-depth study of TIA. Previous studies have clarified that Dl-3-N-butylphthalide (NBP) promotes angiogenesis after stroke. However, the effects of NBP on TIA remain unknown. This study aims to develop an optimized TIA model in C57BL/6 mice to explore the microscopic evidence of ischemic injury after TIA, and investigate the therapeutic effects of NBP on TIA. C57BL/6 mice underwent varying durations (7, 8, 9 or 10 min) of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Cerebral artery occlusion and reperfusion were assessed by laser speckle contrast imaging. TIA and ischemic stroke were distinguished by neurological testing and MRI examination at 24 h post-operation. Neuronal apoptosis was examined by TUNEL staining. Images of submicron cerebrovascular networks were obtained via micro-optical sectioning tomography. Subsequently, the mice were randomly assigned to a sham-operated group, a vehicle-treated TIA group or an NBP-treated TIA group. Vascular density was determined by immunofluorescent staining and fluorescein isothiocyanate method, and the expression of angiogenic growth factors were detected by western blot analysis. We found that an 8-min or shorter period of ischemia induced neither permanent neurological deficits nor MRI detectable brain lesions in C57BL/6 mice, but histologically caused neuronal apoptosis and cerebral vasculature abnormalities. NBP treatment increased the number of CD31+ microvessels and perfused microvessels after TIA. NBP also up-regulated the expression of VEGF, Ang-1 and Ang-2 and improved the cerebrovascular network. In conclusion, 8 min or shorter cerebral ischemia induced by the suture MCAO method is an appropriate TIA model in C57BL/6 mice, which conforms to the definition of human TIA, but causes microscopic neurovascular impairment. NBP treatment increased the expression of angiogenic growth factors, promoted angiogenesis and improved cerebral microvessels after TIA. Our study provides new insights on the pathogenesis and potential treatments of TIA.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Ping Zhang
- Department of Neurology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Zhouping Tang
- Department of Neurology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
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Huang Q, Cao T, Chen Y, Li A, Zeng S, Quan T. Automated Neuron Tracing Using Content-Aware Adaptive Voxel Scooping on CNN Predicted Probability Map. Front Neuroanat 2021; 15:712842. [PMID: 34497493 PMCID: PMC8419427 DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2021.712842] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuron tracing, as the essential step for neural circuit building and brain information flow analyzing, plays an important role in the understanding of brain organization and function. Though lots of methods have been proposed, automatic and accurate neuron tracing from optical images remains challenging. Current methods often had trouble in tracing the complex tree-like distorted structures and broken parts of neurite from a noisy background. To address these issues, we propose a method for accurate neuron tracing using content-aware adaptive voxel scooping on a convolutional neural network (CNN) predicted probability map. First, a 3D residual CNN was applied as preprocessing to predict the object probability and suppress high noise. Then, instead of tracing on the binary image produced by maximum classification, an adaptive voxel scooping method was presented for successive neurite tracing on the probability map, based on the internal content properties (distance, connectivity, and probability continuity along direction) of the neurite. Last, the neuron tree graph was built using the length first criterion. The proposed method was evaluated on the public BigNeuron datasets and fluorescence micro-optical sectioning tomography (fMOST) datasets and outperformed current state-of-art methods on images with neurites that had broken parts and complex structures. The high accuracy tracing proved the potential of the proposed method for neuron tracing on large-scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qing Huang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Tingting Cao
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Yijun Chen
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Anan Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Shaoqun Zeng
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Tingwei Quan
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
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Smith B, Datta A, Lee J, Evans D, Fleiszig S. Quantification of relative neurite tortuosity using Fourier transforms. J Neurosci Methods 2021; 361:109266. [PMID: 34166700 PMCID: PMC10964090 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2021] [Revised: 05/16/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The tortuosity of nerve fibers has been shown to be important for identifying and monitoring clinically relevant manifestations resulting from of a variety of ocular and systemic disease pathologies and disorders. However, quantifying tortuosity in dense neurite networks can prove challenging, as existing methods require manual scoring and/or complete segmentation of the neurite network. NEW METHOD We measured neurite tortuosity by quantifying the degree of directional coherence in the Fourier transform of segmented neurite masks. This allowed for the analysis of neurite tortuosity without requiring complete segmentation of the neurite network. We were also able to adapt this method to measure tortuosity at different length and size scales. RESULTS With this novel method, neurite tortuosity was accurately quantified in simulated data sets at multiple length scales and scale variant and scale invariant tortuosity was accurately distinguished. Use of this method on images of murine corneal neurites correctly distinguished known differences between neurite tortuosity in the peripheral and central cornea. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHOD(S) Other methods require complete segmentation of neurites, which can be prohibitive in dense and/or sparsely labeled neurite networks such as in the cornea. Additionally, other methods require manual curation, manual scoring, or generation of a curated training set, while our novel method directly measures tortuosity as an intrinsic property of the image. CONCLUSIONS We report the use of Fourier transforms for quantification of neurite tortuosity at multiple length scales, and with an image input that contains incompletely segmented neurites. This new method does not require manual training or curation, allowing a direct and rapid measurement of neurite tortuosity, thereby enhancing the accuracy and utility of neurite tortuosity measurements for evaluation of ocular and systemic disease pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Smith
- School of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Graduate Program in Vision Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
| | - Ananya Datta
- School of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Justin Lee
- School of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - David Evans
- School of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; College of Pharmacy, Touro University California, Vallejo, CA 94592, USA
| | - Suzanne Fleiszig
- School of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Graduate Program in Vision Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
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36
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He Y, Huang J, Wu G, Yang J. Exploring highly reliable substructures in auto-reconstructions of a neuron. Brain Inform 2021; 8:17. [PMID: 34431008 PMCID: PMC8384950 DOI: 10.1186/s40708-021-00137-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The digital reconstruction of a neuron is the most direct and effective way to investigate its morphology. Many automatic neuron tracing methods have been proposed, but without manual check it is difficult to know whether a reconstruction or which substructure in a reconstruction is accurate. For a neuron's reconstructions generated by multiple automatic tracing methods with different principles or models, their common substructures are highly reliable and named individual motifs. In this work, we propose a Vaa3D-based method called Lamotif to explore individual motifs in automatic reconstructions of a neuron. Lamotif utilizes the local alignment algorithm in BlastNeuron to extract local alignment pairs between a specified objective reconstruction and multiple reference reconstructions, and combines these pairs to generate individual motifs on the objective reconstruction. The proposed Lamotif is evaluated on reconstructions of 163 multiple species neurons, which are generated by four state-of-the-art tracing methods. Experimental results show that individual motifs are almost on corresponding gold standard reconstructions and have much higher precision rate than objective reconstructions themselves. Furthermore, an objective reconstruction is mostly quite accurate if its individual motifs have high recall rate. Individual motifs contain common geometry substructures in multiple reconstructions, and can be used to select some accurate substructures from a reconstruction or some accurate reconstructions from automatic reconstruction dataset of different neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yishan He
- Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, 100 Pingleyuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100124, China.,Beijing International Collaboration Base On Brain Informatics and Wisdom Services, 100 Pingleyuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100124, China
| | - Jiajin Huang
- Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, 100 Pingleyuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100124, China.,Beijing International Collaboration Base On Brain Informatics and Wisdom Services, 100 Pingleyuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100124, China
| | - Gaowei Wu
- School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19(A) Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing, 100049, China.,Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Haidian District, 95 Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing, 100190, China
| | - Jian Yang
- Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, 100 Pingleyuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100124, China. .,Beijing International Collaboration Base On Brain Informatics and Wisdom Services, 100 Pingleyuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100124, China. .,School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19(A) Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing, 100049, China.
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37
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Shih CT, Chen NY, Wang TY, He GW, Wang GT, Lin YJ, Lee TK, Chiang AS. NeuroRetriever: Automatic Neuron Segmentation for Connectome Assembly. Front Syst Neurosci 2021; 15:687182. [PMID: 34366800 PMCID: PMC8342815 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2021.687182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Segmenting individual neurons from a large number of noisy raw images is the first step in building a comprehensive map of neuron-to-neuron connections for predicting information flow in the brain. Thousands of fluorescence-labeled brain neurons have been imaged. However, mapping a complete connectome remains challenging because imaged neurons are often entangled and manual segmentation of a large population of single neurons is laborious and prone to bias. In this study, we report an automatic algorithm, NeuroRetriever, for unbiased large-scale segmentation of confocal fluorescence images of single neurons in the adult Drosophila brain. NeuroRetriever uses a high-dynamic-range thresholding method to segment three-dimensional morphology of single neurons based on branch-specific structural features. Applying NeuroRetriever to automatically segment single neurons in 22,037 raw brain images, we successfully retrieved 28,125 individual neurons validated by human segmentation. Thus, automated NeuroRetriever will greatly accelerate 3D reconstruction of the single neurons for constructing the complete connectomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chi-Tin Shih
- Department of Applied Physics, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.,Brain Research Center, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Nan-Yow Chen
- National Center for High-Performance Computing, National Applied Research Laboratories, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Ting-Yuan Wang
- Institute of Biotechnology and Department of Life Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Guan-Wei He
- Department of Computer Science, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Guo-Tzau Wang
- National Center for High-Performance Computing, National Applied Research Laboratories, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Yen-Jen Lin
- National Center for High-Performance Computing, National Applied Research Laboratories, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Ting-Kuo Lee
- Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.,Department of Physics, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
| | - Ann-Shyn Chiang
- Department of Applied Physics, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.,Brain Research Center, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.,Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.,Institute of Systems Neuroscience, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.,Department of Biomedical Science and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.,Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States
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38
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Zhou H, Li S, Li A, Huang Q, Xiong F, Li N, Han J, Kang H, Chen Y, Li Y, Lin H, Zhang YH, Lv X, Liu X, Gong H, Luo Q, Zeng S, Quan T. GTree: an Open-source Tool for Dense Reconstruction of Brain-wide Neuronal Population. Neuroinformatics 2021; 19:305-317. [PMID: 32844332 DOI: 10.1007/s12021-020-09484-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Recent technological advancements have facilitated the imaging of specific neuronal populations at the single-axon level across the mouse brain. However, the digital reconstruction of neurons from a large dataset requires months of manual effort using the currently available software. In this study, we develop an open-source software called GTree (global tree reconstruction system) to overcome the above-mentioned problem. GTree offers an error-screening system for the fast localization of submicron errors in densely packed neurites and along with long projections across the whole brain, thus achieving reconstruction close to the ground truth. Moreover, GTree integrates a series of our previous algorithms to significantly reduce manual interference and achieve high-level automation. When applied to an entire mouse brain dataset, GTree is shown to be five times faster than widely used commercial software. Finally, using GTree, we demonstrate the reconstruction of 35 long-projection neurons around one injection site of a mouse brain. GTree is also applicable to large datasets (10 TB or higher) from various light microscopes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hang Zhou
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Shiwei Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Anan Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Qing Huang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Feng Xiong
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Ning Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Jiacheng Han
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Hongtao Kang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Yijun Chen
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Yun Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Huimin Lin
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Yu-Hui Zhang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Xiaohua Lv
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Xiuli Liu
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Hui Gong
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Qingming Luo
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Shaoqun Zeng
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China.,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Tingwei Quan
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong, University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China. .,MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, Wuhan, 430074, China. .,School of Mathematics and Economics, Hubei University of Education, 430205, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
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Yu H, Ying W, Li G, Lin X, Jiang D, Chen G, Chen S, Sun X, Xu Y, Ye J, Zhuo C. Exploring concomitant neuroimaging and genetic alterations in patients with and patients without auditory verbal hallucinations: A pilot study and mini review. J Int Med Res 2021; 48:300060519884856. [PMID: 32696690 PMCID: PMC7376300 DOI: 10.1177/0300060519884856] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective To explore concomitant neuroimaging and genetic alterations in patients with
schizophrenia with or without auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), and to
discuss the use of pattern recognition techniques in the development of an
objective index that may improve diagnostic accuracy and treatment outcomes
for schizophrenia. Methods The pilot study included patients with schizophrenia with AVHs (SCH-AVH
group) and without AVHs (SCH-no AVH group). High throughput sequencing (HTS)
was performed to explore RNA networks. Global functional connectivity
density (gFCD) analysis was performed to assess functional connectivity (FC)
alterations of the default mode network (DMN). Quantitative long noncoding
(lnc) RNA and mRNA expression data were related to peak T values of gFCDs
using Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis. Results Compared with the SCH-no AVH group (n = 5), patients in the
SCH-AVH group (n = 5) exhibited differences in RNA
expression in RNA networks that were related to AVH severity, and displayed
alterations in FC (reflected by gFCD differences) within the DMN (posterior
cingulate and dorsal-medial prefrontal cortex), and in the right parietal
lobe, left occipital lobe, and left temporal lobe. Peak lncRNA expression
values were significantly related to peak gFCD T values within the DMN. Conclusion Among patients with schizophrenia, there are concomitant FC and genetic
expression alterations associated with AVHs. Data from pattern recognition
studies may inform the development of an objective index aimed at improving
early diagnostic accuracy and treatment planning for patients with
schizophrenia with and without AVHs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haiping Yu
- Department of Psychiatric-Neuro-Imaging-Genetics Laboratory, Wenzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Wang Ying
- Psychiatric Neuroimaging-Genetic and Comorbidity Laboratory, Tianjin Mental Health Centre, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin, China
| | - Gang Li
- Department of Psychiatry, Tianshui Third Hospital, Gansu, China
| | - Xiaodong Lin
- Department of Psychiatric-Neuro-Imaging-Genetics Laboratory, Wenzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Deguo Jiang
- Department of Psychiatric-Neuro-Imaging-Genetics Laboratory, Wenzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Guangdong Chen
- Department of Psychiatric-Neuro-Imaging-Genetics Laboratory, Wenzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Suling Chen
- Department of Psychiatric-Neuro-Imaging-Genetics Laboratory, Wenzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Xiuhai Sun
- Department of Neurology, Zoucheng People's Hospital, Jining Medical University Affiliated Zoucheng Hospital, Shandong, China
| | - Yong Xu
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi, China
| | - Jiaen Ye
- Department of Psychiatric-Neuro-Imaging-Genetics Laboratory, Wenzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Chuanjun Zhuo
- Department of Psychiatric-Neuro-Imaging-Genetics Laboratory, Wenzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.,Psychiatric Neuroimaging-Genetic and Comorbidity Laboratory, Tianjin Mental Health Centre, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin, China.,Department of Psychiatry, Tianjin Fourth Centre Hospital, Tianjin, China.,Department of Psychiatric-Neuro-Imaging-Genetics Laboratory, School of Mental Health of Jining Medical University, Jining, Shandong, China
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40
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Yang B, Chen W, Luo H, Tan Y, Liu M, Wang Y. Neuron Image Segmentation via Learning Deep Features and Enhancing Weak Neuronal Structures. IEEE J Biomed Health Inform 2021; 25:1634-1645. [PMID: 32809948 DOI: 10.1109/jbhi.2020.3017540] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Neuron morphology reconstruction (tracing) in 3D volumetric images is critical for neuronal research. However, most existing neuron tracing methods are not applicable in challenging datasets where the neuron images are contaminated by noises or containing weak filament signals. In this paper, we present a two-stage 3D neuron segmentation approach via learning deep features and enhancing weak neuronal structures, to reduce the impact of image noise in the data and enhance the weak-signal neuronal structures. In the first stage, we train a voxel-wise multi-level fully convolutional network (FCN), which specializes in learning deep features, to obtain the 3D neuron image segmentation maps in an end-to-end manner. In the second stage, a ray-shooting model is employed to detect the discontinued segments in segmentation results of the first-stage, and the local neuron diameter of the broken point is estimated and direction of the filamentary fragment is detected by rayburst sampling algorithm. Then, a Hessian-repair model is built to repair the broken structures, by enhancing weak neuronal structures in a fibrous structure determined by the estimated local neuron diameter and the filamentary fragment direction. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed segmentation approach achieves better segmentation performance than other state-of-the-art methods for 3D neuron segmentation. Compared with the neuron reconstruction results on the segmented images produced by other segmentation methods, the proposed approach gains 47.83% and 34.83% improvement in the average distance scores. The average Precision and Recall rates of the branch point detection with our proposed method are 38.74% and 22.53% higher than the detection results without segmentation.
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Li Q, Zhang Y, Liang H, Gong H, Jiang L, Liu Q, Shen L. Deep learning based neuronal soma detection and counting for Alzheimer's disease analysis. COMPUTER METHODS AND PROGRAMS IN BIOMEDICINE 2021; 203:106023. [PMID: 33744751 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2021.106023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 02/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is associated with neuronal damage and decrease. Micro-Optical Sectioning Tomography (MOST) provides an approach to acquire high-resolution images for neuron analysis in the whole-brain. Application of this technique to AD mouse brain enables us to investigate neuron changes during the progression of AD pathology. However, how to deal with the huge amount of data becomes the bottleneck. METHODS Using MOST technology, we acquired 3D whole-brain images of six AD mice, and sampled the imaging data of four regions in each mouse brain for AD progression analysis. To count the number of neurons, we proposed a deep learning based method by detecting neuronal soma in the neuronal images. In our method, the neuronal images were first cut into small cubes, then a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier was designed to detect the neuronal soma by classifying the cubes into three categories, "soma", "fiber", and "background". RESULTS Compared with the manual method and currently available NeuroGPS software, our method demonstrates faster speed and higher accuracy in identifying neurons from the MOST images. By applying our method to various brain regions of 6-month-old and 12-month-old AD mice, we found that the amount of neurons in three brain regions (lateral entorhinal cortex, medial entorhinal cortex, and presubiculum) decreased slightly with the increase of age, which is consistent with the experimental results previously reported. CONCLUSION This paper provides a new method to automatically handle the huge amounts of data and accurately identify neuronal soma from the MOST images. It also provides the potential possibility to construct a whole-brain neuron projection to reveal the impact of AD pathology on mouse brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiufu Li
- Computer Vision Institute, College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518060, China; AI Research Center for Medical Image Analysis and Diagnosis, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Intelligent Information Processing, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Yu Zhang
- College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, China
| | - Hanbang Liang
- Computer Vision Institute, College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518060, China; AI Research Center for Medical Image Analysis and Diagnosis, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Intelligent Information Processing, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Hui Gong
- National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Liang Jiang
- College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, China.
| | - Qiong Liu
- College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, China; Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen, 518055, China; Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
| | - Linlin Shen
- Computer Vision Institute, College of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518060, China; AI Research Center for Medical Image Analysis and Diagnosis, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Intelligent Information Processing, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
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42
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Wang J, Sun P, Lv X, Jin S, Li A, Kuang J, Li N, Gang Y, Guo R, Zeng S, Xu F, Zhang YH. Divergent Projection Patterns Revealed by Reconstruction of Individual Neurons in Orbitofrontal Cortex. Neurosci Bull 2021; 37:461-477. [PMID: 33373031 PMCID: PMC8055809 DOI: 10.1007/s12264-020-00616-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is involved in diverse brain functions via its extensive projections to multiple target regions. There is a growing understanding of the overall outputs of the OFC at the population level, but reports of the projection patterns of individual OFC neurons across different cortical layers remain rare. Here, by combining neuronal sparse and bright labeling with a whole-brain florescence imaging system (fMOST), we obtained an uninterrupted three-dimensional whole-brain dataset and achieved the full morphological reconstruction of 25 OFC pyramidal neurons. We compared the whole-brain projection targets of these individual OFC neurons in different cortical layers as well as in the same cortical layer. We found cortical layer-dependent projections characterized by divergent patterns for information delivery. Our study not only provides a structural basis for understanding the principles of laminar organizations in the OFC, but also provides clues for future functional and behavioral studies on OFC pyramidal neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junjun Wang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Pei Sun
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Xiaohua Lv
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Sen Jin
- Centre for Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic Molecular Physics, Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, CAS Centre for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China
| | - Anan Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Jianxia Kuang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Ning Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Yadong Gang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Rui Guo
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Shaoqun Zeng
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Fuqiang Xu
- Centre for Brain Science, State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic Molecular Physics, Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, CAS Centre for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China
| | - Yu-Hui Zhang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.
- MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.
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43
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Zhang T, Zeng Y, Zhang Y, Zhang X, Shi M, Tang L, Zhang D, Xu B. Neuron type classification in rat brain based on integrative convolutional and tree-based recurrent neural networks. Sci Rep 2021; 11:7291. [PMID: 33790380 PMCID: PMC8012629 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-86780-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2019] [Accepted: 03/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The study of cellular complexity in the nervous system based on anatomy has shown more practical and objective advantages in morphology than other perspectives on molecular, physiological, and evolutionary aspects. However, morphology-based neuron type classification in the whole rat brain is challenging, given the significant number of neuron types, limited reconstructed neuron samples, and diverse data formats. Here, we report that different types of deep neural network modules may well process different kinds of features and that the integration of these submodules will show power on the representation and classification of neuron types. For SWC-format data, which are compressed but unstructured, we construct a tree-based recurrent neural network (Tree-RNN) module. For 2D or 3D slice-format data, which are structured but with large volumes of pixels, we construct a convolutional neural network (CNN) module. We also generate a virtually simulated dataset with two classes, reconstruct a CASIA rat-neuron dataset with 2.6 million neurons without labels, and select the NeuroMorpho-rat dataset with 35,000 neurons containing hierarchical labels. In the twelve-class classification task, the proposed model achieves state-of-the-art performance compared with other models, e.g., the CNN, RNN, and support vector machine based on hand-designed features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tielin Zhang
- Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Yi Zeng
- Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. .,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. .,Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
| | - Yue Zhang
- Electronics and Communication Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Xinhe Zhang
- Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Mengting Shi
- Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Likai Tang
- Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Duzhen Zhang
- Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Bo Xu
- Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
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He F, Huang X, Wang X, Qiu S, Jiang F, Ling SH. A neuron image segmentation method based Deep Boltzmann Machine and CV model. Comput Med Imaging Graph 2021; 89:101871. [PMID: 33713913 DOI: 10.1016/j.compmedimag.2021.101871] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2020] [Revised: 01/15/2021] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Neuron image segmentation has wide applications and important potential values for neuroscience research. Due to the complexity of the submicroscopic structure of neurons cells and the defects of the image quality such as anisotropy, boundary loss and blurriness in electron microscopy-based (EM) imaging, and one faces a challenge in efficient automated segmenting large-scale neuron image 3D datasets, which is an essential prerequisite front-end process for the reconstruction of neuron circuits. Here, a neuron image segmentation method by combining Chan-Vest (CV) model with Deep Boltzmann Machine (DBM) is proposed, and a generative model is used to model and generate the target shape, it take this as a prior information to add global target shape feature constraint to the energy function of CV model, and the shape priori information is fused to assist neuron image segmentation. We applied our method to two 3D-EM datasets from different types of nerve tissue and achieved the best performance consistently across two classical evaluation metrics of neuron segmentation accuracy, namely Variation of Information (VoI) and Adaptive Rand Index (ARI). Experimental results show that the fusion algorithm has high segmentation accuracy, strong robustness, and can characterize the sub-microstructure information of neuron images well.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fuyun He
- College of Electronic Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China; Guangxi Key Laboratory of Automatic Detection Technology and Instrument, Guilin, China; Guangxi Key Laboratory of Wireless Wideband Communication and Signal Processing, Guilin, China
| | - Xiaoming Huang
- College of Electronic Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China; Guangxi Key Laboratory of Wireless Wideband Communication and Signal Processing, Guilin, China
| | - Xun Wang
- College of Electronic Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China; Key Laboratory for the Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Medicinal Resources (Guangxi Normal University), Ministry of Education of China, Guilin, China
| | - Senhui Qiu
- College of Electronic Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China; Guangxi Key Laboratory of Automatic Detection Technology and Instrument, Guilin, China
| | - F Jiang
- Faculty of Science, Engineering & Built Environment, Deakin University, Australia.
| | - Sai Ho Ling
- Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
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45
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Molbay M, Kolabas ZI, Todorov MI, Ohn T, Ertürk A. A guidebook for DISCO tissue clearing. Mol Syst Biol 2021; 17:e9807. [PMID: 33769689 PMCID: PMC7995442 DOI: 10.15252/msb.20209807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2020] [Revised: 12/29/2020] [Accepted: 01/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Histological analysis of biological tissues by mechanical sectioning is significantly time-consuming and error-prone due to loss of important information during sample slicing. In the recent years, the development of tissue clearing methods overcame several of these limitations and allowed exploring intact biological specimens by rendering tissues transparent and subsequently imaging them by laser scanning fluorescence microscopy. In this review, we provide a guide for scientists who would like to perform a clearing protocol from scratch without any prior knowledge, with an emphasis on DISCO clearing protocols, which have been widely used not only due to their robustness, but also owing to their relatively straightforward application. We discuss diverse tissue-clearing options and propose solutions for several possible pitfalls. Moreover, after surveying more than 30 researchers that employ tissue clearing techniques in their laboratories, we compiled the most frequently encountered issues and propose solutions. Overall, this review offers an informative and detailed guide through the growing literature of tissue clearing and can help with finding the easiest way for hands-on implementation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muge Molbay
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM)Helmholtz CenterNeuherberg, MunichGermany
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia ResearchKlinikum der Universität MünchenLudwig‐Maximilians‐University MunichMunichGermany
- Munich Medical Research School (MMRS)MunichGermany
| | - Zeynep Ilgin Kolabas
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM)Helmholtz CenterNeuherberg, MunichGermany
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia ResearchKlinikum der Universität MünchenLudwig‐Maximilians‐University MunichMunichGermany
- Graduate School for Systemic Neurosciences (GSN)MunichGermany
| | - Mihail Ivilinov Todorov
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM)Helmholtz CenterNeuherberg, MunichGermany
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia ResearchKlinikum der Universität MünchenLudwig‐Maximilians‐University MunichMunichGermany
- Graduate School for Systemic Neurosciences (GSN)MunichGermany
| | - Tzu‐Lun Ohn
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM)Helmholtz CenterNeuherberg, MunichGermany
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia ResearchKlinikum der Universität MünchenLudwig‐Maximilians‐University MunichMunichGermany
| | - Ali Ertürk
- Institute for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM)Helmholtz CenterNeuherberg, MunichGermany
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia ResearchKlinikum der Universität MünchenLudwig‐Maximilians‐University MunichMunichGermany
- Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy)MunichGermany
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46
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Jiang Y, Chen W, Liu M, Wang Y, Meijering E. 3D Neuron Microscopy Image Segmentation via the Ray-Shooting Model and a DC-BLSTM Network. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MEDICAL IMAGING 2021; 40:26-37. [PMID: 32881683 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2020.3021493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The morphology reconstruction (tracing) of neurons in 3D microscopy images is important to neuroscience research. However, this task remains very challenging because of the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the discontinued segments of neurite patterns in the images. In this paper, we present a neuronal structure segmentation method based on the ray-shooting model and the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)-based network to enhance the weak-signal neuronal structures and remove background noise in 3D neuron microscopy images. Specifically, the ray-shooting model is used to extract the intensity distribution features within a local region of the image. And we design a neural network based on the dual channel bidirectional LSTM (DC-BLSTM) to detect the foreground voxels according to the voxel-intensity features and boundary-response features extracted by multiple ray-shooting models that are generated in the whole image. This way, we transform the 3D image segmentation task into multiple 1D ray/sequence segmentation tasks, which makes it much easier to label the training samples than many existing Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based 3D neuron image segmentation methods. In the experiments, we evaluate the performance of our method on the challenging 3D neuron images from two datasets, the BigNeuron dataset and the Whole Mouse Brain Sub-image (WMBS) dataset. Compared with the neuron tracing results on the segmented images produced by other state-of-the-art neuron segmentation methods, our method improves the distance scores by about 32% and 27% in the BigNeuron dataset, and about 38% and 27% in the WMBS dataset.
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47
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Zhao J, Chen X, Xiong Z, Liu D, Zeng J, Xie C, Zhang Y, Zha ZJ, Bi G, Wu F. Neuronal Population Reconstruction From Ultra-Scale Optical Microscopy Images via Progressive Learning. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MEDICAL IMAGING 2020; 39:4034-4046. [PMID: 32746145 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2020.3009148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Reconstruction of neuronal populations from ultra-scale optical microscopy (OM) images is essential to investigate neuronal circuits and brain mechanisms. The noises, low contrast, huge memory requirement, and high computational cost pose significant challenges in the neuronal population reconstruction. Recently, many studies have been conducted to extract neuron signals using deep neural networks (DNNs). However, training such DNNs usually relies on a huge amount of voxel-wise annotations in OM images, which are expensive in terms of both finance and labor. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for dense neuronal population reconstruction from ultra-scale images. To solve the problem of high cost in obtaining manual annotations for training DNNs, we propose a progressive learning scheme for neuronal population reconstruction (PLNPR) which does not require any manual annotations. Our PLNPR scheme consists of a traditional neuron tracing module and a deep segmentation network that mutually complement and progressively promote each other. To reconstruct dense neuronal populations from a terabyte-sized ultra-scale image, we introduce an automatic framework which adaptively traces neurons block by block and fuses fragmented neurites in overlapped regions continuously and smoothly. We build a dataset "VISoR-40" which consists of 40 large-scale OM image blocks from cortical regions of a mouse. Extensive experimental results on our VISoR-40 dataset and the public BigNeuron dataset demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of our method on neuronal population reconstruction and single neuron reconstruction. Furthermore, we successfully apply our method to reconstruct dense neuronal populations from an ultra-scale mouse brain slice. The proposed adaptive block propagation and fusion strategies greatly improve the completeness of neurites in dense neuronal population reconstruction.
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48
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Zhou C, Zheng T, Luo T, Yan C, Sun Q, Ren M, Zhao P, Chen W, Ji B, Wang Z, Li A, Gong H, Li X. Continuous imaging of large-volume tissues with a machinable optical clearing method at subcellular resolution. BIOMEDICAL OPTICS EXPRESS 2020; 11:7132-7149. [PMID: 33408985 PMCID: PMC7747903 DOI: 10.1364/boe.405801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2020] [Revised: 10/14/2020] [Accepted: 10/15/2020] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Optical clearing methods are widely used for three-dimensional biological information acquisition in the whole organ. However, the imaging quality of cleared tissues is often limited by ununiformed tissue clearing. By combining tissue clearing with mechanical sectioning based whole organ imaging system, we can reduce the influence of light scattering and absorption on the tissue to get isotropic and high resolution in both superficial and deep layers. However, it remains challenging for optical cleared biological tissue to maintain good sectioning property. Here, we developed a clearing method named M-CUBIC (machinable CUBIC), which combined a modified CUBIC method with PNAGA (poly-N-acryloyl glycinamide) hydrogel embedding to transparentize tissue while improving its sectioning property. With high-throughput light-sheet tomography platform (HLTP) and fluorescent micro-optical sectioning tomography (fMOST), we acquired continuous datasets with subcellular resolution from intact mouse brains for single neuron tracing, as well as the fine vascular structure of kidneys. This method can be used to acquire microstructures of multiple types of biological organs with subcellular resolutions, which can facilitate biological research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Can Zhou
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Ting Zheng
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Ting Luo
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Cheng Yan
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Qingtao Sun
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou 215123, China
| | - Miao Ren
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
| | - Peilin Zhao
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Wu Chen
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Bingqing Ji
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Zhi Wang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Anan Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou 215123, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200031, China
| | - Hui Gong
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou 215123, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200031, China
| | - Xiangning Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
- HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou 215123, China
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Velasco I, Toharia P, Benavides-Piccione R, Fernaud-Espinosa I, Brito JP, Mata S, DeFelipe J, Pastor L, Bayona S. Neuronize v2: Bridging the Gap Between Existing Proprietary Tools to Optimize Neuroscientific Workflows. Front Neuroanat 2020; 14:585793. [PMID: 33192345 PMCID: PMC7646287 DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2020.585793] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Knowledge about neuron morphology is key to understanding brain structure and function. There are a variety of software tools that are used to segment and trace the neuron morphology. However, these tools usually utilize proprietary formats. This causes interoperability problems since the information extracted with one tool cannot be used in other tools. This article aims to improve neuronal reconstruction workflows by facilitating the interoperability between two of the most commonly used software tools—Neurolucida (NL) and Imaris (Filament Tracer). The new functionality has been included in an existing tool—Neuronize—giving rise to its second version. Neuronize v2 makes it possible to automatically use the data extracted with Imaris Filament Tracer to generate a tracing with dendritic spine information that can be read directly by NL. It also includes some other new features, such as the ability to unify and/or correct inaccurately-formed meshes (i.e., dendritic spines) and to calculate new metrics. This tool greatly facilitates the process of neuronal reconstruction, bridging the gap between existing proprietary tools to optimize neuroscientific workflows.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Velasco
- Department of Computer Science, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Pablo Toharia
- DATSI, ETSIINF, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.,Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ruth Benavides-Piccione
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, Madrid, Spain.,Laboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.,Instituto Cajal (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Isabel Fernaud-Espinosa
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, Madrid, Spain.,Laboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.,Instituto Cajal (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Juan P Brito
- DLSIIS, ETSIINF, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.,Center for Computational Simulation, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Susana Mata
- Department of Computer Science, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.,Center for Computational Simulation, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Javier DeFelipe
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, Madrid, Spain.,Laboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.,Instituto Cajal (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Luis Pastor
- Department of Computer Science, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.,Center for Computational Simulation, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Sofia Bayona
- Department of Computer Science, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.,Center for Computational Simulation, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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50
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Jiang S, Pan Z, Feng Z, Guan Y, Ren M, Ding Z, Chen S, Gong H, Luo Q, Li A. Skeleton optimization of neuronal morphology based on three-dimensional shape restrictions. BMC Bioinformatics 2020; 21:395. [PMID: 32887543 PMCID: PMC7472589 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-020-03714-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 08/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Neurons are the basic structural unit of the brain, and their morphology is a key determinant of their classification. The morphology of a neuronal circuit is a fundamental component in neuron modeling. Recently, single-neuron morphologies of the whole brain have been used in many studies. The correctness and completeness of semimanually traced neuronal morphology are credible. However, there are some inaccuracies in semimanual tracing results. The distance between consecutive nodes marked by humans is very long, spanning multiple voxels. On the other hand, the nodes are marked around the centerline of the neuronal fiber, not on the centerline. Although these inaccuracies do not seriously affect the projection patterns that these studies focus on, they reduce the accuracy of the traced neuronal skeletons. These small inaccuracies will introduce deviations into subsequent studies that are based on neuronal morphology files. Results We propose a neuronal digital skeleton optimization method to evaluate and make fine adjustments to a digital skeleton after neuron tracing. Provided that the neuronal fiber shape is smooth and continuous, we describe its physical properties according to two shape restrictions. One restriction is designed based on the grayscale image, and the other is designed based on geometry. These two restrictions are designed to finely adjust the digital skeleton points to the neuronal fiber centerline. With this method, we design the three-dimensional shape restriction workflow of neuronal skeleton adjustment computation. The performance of the proposed method has been quantitatively evaluated using synthetic and real neuronal image data. The results show that our method can reduce the difference between the traced neuronal skeleton and the centerline of the neuronal fiber. Furthermore, morphology metrics such as the neuronal fiber length and radius become more precise. Conclusions This method can improve the accuracy of a neuronal digital skeleton based on traced results. The greater the accuracy of the digital skeletons that are acquired, the more precise the neuronal morphologies that are analyzed will be.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siqi Jiang
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Zhengyu Pan
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Zhao Feng
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Yue Guan
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Miao Ren
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, China
| | - Zhangheng Ding
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Shangbin Chen
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Hui Gong
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China
| | - Qingming Luo
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.,School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, China.,HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China
| | - Anan Li
- Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. .,HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI Institute for Brainsmatics, Suzhou, China. .,CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China.
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