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Schaeberle CM, Bouffard VA, Sonnenschein C, Soto AM. Modeling Mammary Organogenesis from Biological First Principles: A Systems Biology Approach. Methods Mol Biol 2024; 2745:177-188. [PMID: 38060186 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3577-3_11] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
Stromal-epithelial interactions mediate mammary gland development and the formation and progression of breast cancer. To study these interactions in vitro, 3D models are essential. We have successfully developed novel 3D in vitro models that allow the formation of mammary gland structures closely resembling those found in vivo and that respond to the hormonal cues that regulate mammary gland morphogenesis and function. Due to their simplicity when compared to in vivo studies, and to their accessibility to visualization in real time, these models are well suited to conceptual and mathematical modeling.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Ana M Soto
- Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
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2
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Morris TA, Eldeen S, Tran RDH, Grosberg A. A comprehensive review of computational and image analysis techniques for quantitative evaluation of striated muscle tissue architecture. BIOPHYSICS REVIEWS 2022; 3:041302. [PMID: 36407035 PMCID: PMC9667907 DOI: 10.1063/5.0057434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Unbiased evaluation of morphology is crucial to understanding development, mechanics, and pathology of striated muscle tissues. Indeed, the ability of striated muscles to contract and the strength of their contraction is dependent on their tissue-, cellular-, and cytoskeletal-level organization. Accordingly, the study of striated muscles often requires imaging and assessing aspects of their architecture at multiple different spatial scales. While an expert may be able to qualitatively appraise tissues, it is imperative to have robust, repeatable tools to quantify striated myocyte morphology and behavior that can be used to compare across different labs and experiments. There has been a recent effort to define the criteria used by experts to evaluate striated myocyte architecture. In this review, we will describe metrics that have been developed to summarize distinct aspects of striated muscle architecture in multiple different tissues, imaged with various modalities. Additionally, we will provide an overview of metrics and image processing software that needs to be developed. Importantly to any lab working on striated muscle platforms, characterization of striated myocyte morphology using the image processing pipelines discussed in this review can be used to quantitatively evaluate striated muscle tissues and contribute to a robust understanding of the development and mechanics of striated muscles.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah Eldeen
- Center for Complex Biological Systems, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-2700, USA
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3
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Kaseva T, Omidali B, Hippeläinen E, Mäkelä T, Wilppu U, Sofiev A, Merivaara A, Yliperttula M, Savolainen S, Salli E. Marker-controlled watershed with deep edge emphasis and optimized H-minima transform for automatic segmentation of densely cultivated 3D cell nuclei. BMC Bioinformatics 2022; 23:289. [PMID: 35864453 PMCID: PMC9306214 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-022-04827-3] [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: 01/19/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The segmentation of 3D cell nuclei is essential in many tasks, such as targeted molecular radiotherapies (MRT) for metastatic tumours, toxicity screening, and the observation of proliferating cells. In recent years, one popular method for automatic segmentation of nuclei has been deep learning enhanced marker-controlled watershed transform. In this method, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been used to create nuclei masks and markers, and the watershed algorithm for the instance segmentation. We studied whether this method could be improved for the segmentation of densely cultivated 3D nuclei via developing multiple system configurations in which we studied the effect of edge emphasizing CNNs, and optimized H-minima transform for mask and marker generation, respectively. RESULTS The dataset used for training and evaluation consisted of twelve in vitro cultivated densely packed 3D human carcinoma cell spheroids imaged using a confocal microscope. With this dataset, the evaluation was performed using a cross-validation scheme. In addition, four independent datasets were used for evaluation. The datasets were resampled near isotropic for our experiments. The baseline deep learning enhanced marker-controlled watershed obtained an average of 0.69 Panoptic Quality (PQ) and 0.66 Aggregated Jaccard Index (AJI) over the twelve spheroids. Using a system configuration, which was otherwise the same but used 3D-based edge emphasizing CNNs and optimized H-minima transform, the scores increased to 0.76 and 0.77, respectively. When using the independent datasets for evaluation, the best performing system configuration was shown to outperform or equal the baseline and a set of well-known cell segmentation approaches. CONCLUSIONS The use of edge emphasizing U-Nets and optimized H-minima transform can improve the marker-controlled watershed transform for segmentation of densely cultivated 3D cell nuclei. A novel dataset of twelve spheroids was introduced to the public.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tuomas Kaseva
- HUS Medical Imaging Center, Radiology, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 340, FI-00290, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Bahareh Omidali
- Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Eero Hippeläinen
- Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland.,HUS Medical Imaging Centre, Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Teemu Mäkelä
- HUS Medical Imaging Center, Radiology, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 340, FI-00290, Helsinki, Finland.,Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Ulla Wilppu
- HUS Medical Imaging Center, Radiology, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 340, FI-00290, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Alexey Sofiev
- HUS Medical Imaging Center, Radiology, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 340, FI-00290, Helsinki, Finland.,Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Arto Merivaara
- Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Centre for Drug Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Marjo Yliperttula
- Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Centre for Drug Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Sauli Savolainen
- HUS Medical Imaging Center, Radiology, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 340, FI-00290, Helsinki, Finland.,Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Eero Salli
- HUS Medical Imaging Center, Radiology, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 340, FI-00290, Helsinki, Finland.
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Hasan N, Zhang Y, Georgakoudi I, Sonnenschein C, Soto AM. Matrix Composition Modulates Vitamin D3's Effects on 3D Collagen Fiber Organization by MCF10A Cells. Tissue Eng Part A 2021; 27:1399-1410. [PMID: 33789436 DOI: 10.1089/ten.tea.2020.0371] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Vitamin D3 (vitD3) has been implicated in various cellular functions affecting multiple tissue types. Epidemiological and laboratory studies suggest that vitD3 may be effective as a preventive or therapeutic option for breast cancer. However, randomized clinical trials have yet to confirm these suggestions. Breast neoplasias can arise from developmental alterations; based on this evidence, we seek to understand vitD3's role in normal breast development, particularly its role in epithelial morphogenetic processes such as ductal elongation, branching, and alveolar formation. These processes require extensive changes in the extracellular microenvironment, such as collagen fiber organization, and are largely influenced by hormones. Here, we build upon our past work to shed light on calcitriol's effects on collagen fiber organization by breast epithelial cells, and how such effects are modulated by extracellular matrix composition. We embedded MCF10A normal human breast epithelial cells in two different matrices-collagen type I and collagen type I + 10% Matrigel; treatment with calcitriol resulted in flatter epithelial structures. Next, using two-photon microscopy, we examined changes in collagen fiber organization and corresponding changes in epithelial structures. Applying a novel three-dimensional (3D) image analysis method, we show that increasing doses of calcitriol result in denser collagen fiber bundles in the localized area surrounding the epithelial structures, and that these bundles are aligned in a more parallel direction to epithelial structures when exposed to the highest vitD3 dose. Changed patterns in fiber organization may explain the flattening of epithelial structures; in turn, changes in biophysical forces in the matrix abutting these structures may be responsible for changes in the referred patterns. Addition of 10% Matrigel dampened the effects of calcitriol on both epithelial morphogenesis and fiber organization. Overall, we report novel functions of calcitriol in the breast epithelium and add to the growing body of evidence documenting how hormones affect biophysical processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nafis Hasan
- Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Irene Georgakoudi
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Carlos Sonnenschein
- Department of Immunology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ana M Soto
- Department of Immunology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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Piccinini F, Balassa T, Carbonaro A, Diosdi A, Toth T, Moshkov N, Tasnadi EA, Horvath P. Software tools for 3D nuclei segmentation and quantitative analysis in multicellular aggregates. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2020; 18:1287-1300. [PMID: 32612752 PMCID: PMC7303562 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2020.05.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2020] [Revised: 05/22/2020] [Accepted: 05/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Today, we are fully immersed into the era of 3D biology. It has been extensively demonstrated that 3D models: (a) better mimic the physiology of human tissues; (b) can effectively replace animal models; (c) often provide more reliable results than 2D ones. Accordingly, anti-cancer drug screenings and toxicology studies based on multicellular 3D biological models, the so-called "-oids" (e.g. spheroids, tumoroids, organoids), are blooming in the literature. However, the complex nature of these systems limit the manual quantitative analyses of single cells' behaviour in the culture. Accordingly, the demand for advanced software tools that are able to perform phenotypic analysis is fundamental. In this work, we describe the freely accessible tools that are currently available for biologists and researchers interested in analysing the effects of drugs/treatments on 3D multicellular -oids at a single-cell resolution level. In addition, using publicly available nuclear stained datasets we quantitatively compare the segmentation performance of 9 specific tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filippo Piccinini
- Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Cancer Research Hospital, Meldola, FC, Italy
| | - Tamas Balassa
- Synthetic and Systems Biology Unit, Biological Research Centre (BRC), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Antonella Carbonaro
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy
| | - Akos Diosdi
- Synthetic and Systems Biology Unit, Biological Research Centre (BRC), Szeged, Hungary
- Doctoral School of Biology, University of Szeged, Hungary
| | - Timea Toth
- Synthetic and Systems Biology Unit, Biological Research Centre (BRC), Szeged, Hungary
- Doctoral School of Biology, University of Szeged, Hungary
| | - Nikita Moshkov
- Synthetic and Systems Biology Unit, Biological Research Centre (BRC), Szeged, Hungary
- Doctoral School of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Szeged, Hungary
- National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
| | - Ervin A. Tasnadi
- Synthetic and Systems Biology Unit, Biological Research Centre (BRC), Szeged, Hungary
- Doctoral School of Computer Science, University of Szeged, Hungary
| | - Peter Horvath
- Synthetic and Systems Biology Unit, Biological Research Centre (BRC), Szeged, Hungary
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Single-Cell Technologies Ltd., Szeged, Hungary
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Booij TH, Price LS, Danen EHJ. 3D Cell-Based Assays for Drug Screens: Challenges in Imaging, Image Analysis, and High-Content Analysis. SLAS DISCOVERY : ADVANCING LIFE SCIENCES R & D 2019; 24:615-627. [PMID: 30817892 PMCID: PMC6589915 DOI: 10.1177/2472555219830087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2018] [Revised: 01/17/2019] [Accepted: 01/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The introduction of more relevant cell models in early preclinical drug discovery, combined with high-content imaging and automated analysis, is expected to increase the quality of compounds progressing to preclinical stages in the drug development pipeline. In this review we discuss the current switch to more relevant 3D cell culture models and associated challenges for high-throughput screening and high-content analysis. We propose that overcoming these challenges will enable front-loading the drug discovery pipeline with better biology, extracting the most from that biology, and, in general, improving translation between in vitro and in vivo models. This is expected to reduce the proportion of compounds that fail in vivo testing due to a lack of efficacy or to toxicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tijmen H. Booij
- Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- NEXUS Personalized Health Technologies, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Leo S. Price
- Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- OcellO B.V., Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Erik H. J. Danen
- Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Vitamin D3 constrains estrogen's effects and influences mammary epithelial organization in 3D cultures. Sci Rep 2019; 9:7423. [PMID: 31092845 PMCID: PMC6520380 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-43308-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2019] [Accepted: 04/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Vitamin D3 (vitD3) and its active metabolite, calcitriol (1,25-(OH)2D3), affect multiple tissue types by interacting with the vitamin D receptor (VDR). Although vitD3 deficiency has been correlated with increased incidence of breast cancer and less favorable outcomes, randomized clinical trials have yet to provide conclusive evidence on the efficacy of vitD3 in preventing or treating breast cancer. Additionally, experimental studies are needed to assess the biological plausibility of these outcomes. The mammary gland of VDR KO mice shows a florid phenotype revealing alterations of developmental processes that are largely regulated by mammotropic hormones. However, most research conducted on vitD3's effects used 2D cell cultures and supra-physiological doses of vitD3, conditions that spare the microenvironment in which morphogenesis takes place. We investigated the role of vitD3 in mammary epithelial morphogenesis using two 3D culture models. VitD3 interfered with estrogen's actions on T47D human breast cancer cells in 3D differently at different doses, and recapitulated what is observed in vivo. Also, vitD3 can act autonomously and affected the organization of estrogen-insensitive MCF10A cells in 3D collagen matrix by influencing collagen fiber organization. Thus, vitD3 modulates mammary tissue organization independent of its effects on cell proliferation.
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Sweeney MF, Sonnenschein C, Soto AM. Characterization of MCF-12A cell phenotype, response to estrogens, and growth in 3D. Cancer Cell Int 2018; 18:43. [PMID: 29559854 PMCID: PMC5859508 DOI: 10.1186/s12935-018-0534-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2017] [Accepted: 03/05/2018] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Three-dimensional cultures of mammary epithelial cells allow for biologically-relevant studies of the development of the mammary gland in rodents and humans under normal and pathological conditions, like carcinogenesis. Under these conditions, mammotropic hormones play significant roles in tissue morphogenesis. Therefore, a system that recreates the normal, hormonally responsive epithelium would be a valuable tool to study the normal state and its transition to carcinogenesis. MCF-12A cells have been claimed to be non-tumorigenic mammary epithelial cells with reported sensitivity to estrogens. In this study, we aimed at characterizing MCF-12A cells for use in a hormone-responsive 3D culture system to determine their usefulness as a tool to identify normal and abnormal microenvironmental cues. Methods MCF-12A cells were single-cell cloned in order to investigate their heterogeneous makeup. The parental cells were then treated with estradiol to investigate proliferative and transcriptional responses through the estrogen receptor alpha. Finally, parental cells and epithelial-like cell-derived clones were seeded in rat-tail collagen I to profile the morphogenesis of multicellular 3D structures. The resultant structures were then analyzed using unsupervised morphometric analysis. Results MCF-12A cells consist of epithelial-like colonies which shed elongated, freely growing cells on the colony's edges. The cells express E-cadherin as well as mesenchymal vimentin but do not express markers associated with myoepithelial cells or fibroblasts. Treatment with estradiol does not affect either the proliferation rate or the induction of gene expression in MCF-12A cells. Parental MCF-12A cells form acini, solid spheres and elongated branching ducts when grown in rat-tail collagen type I matrix, the geometries and distribution of which are altered following the removal of fibroblast-like cells. Conclusions MCF-12A cells are a heterogeneous pseudo-epithelial cell line capable of forming a variety of multicellular structures in 3D culture. We found no indication that the cells display estrogen-responsive characteristics, thus refuting previous studies which reported estrogen responsiveness. We report that MCF-12A cells are not suited for use in studies in which differential behaviors of "normal" and "cancerous" estrogen-responsive cells are to be compared.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael F Sweeney
- 1Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University, 136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111 USA
| | - Carlos Sonnenschein
- 2Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111 USA
| | - Ana M Soto
- 2Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111 USA
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A novel toolbox to investigate tissue spatial organization applied to the study of the islets of Langerhans. Sci Rep 2017; 7:44261. [PMID: 28303903 PMCID: PMC5355872 DOI: 10.1038/srep44261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2016] [Accepted: 02/07/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Thanks to the development of new 3D Imaging techniques, volumetric data of thick samples, especially tissues, are commonly available. Several algorithms were proposed to analyze cells or nuclei in tissues, however these tools are limited to two dimensions. Within any given tissue, cells are not likely to be organized randomly and as such have specific patterns of cell-cell interaction forming complex communication networks. In this paper, we propose a new set of tools as an approach to segment and analyze tissues in 3D with single cell resolution. This new tool box can identify and compute the geographical location of single cells and analyze the potential physical interactions between different cell types and in 3D. As a proof-of-principle, we applied our methodology to investigation of the cyto-architecture of the islets of Langerhans in mice and monkeys. The results obtained here are a significant improvement in current methodologies and provides new insight into the organization of alpha cells and their cellular interactions within the islet’s cellular framework.
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