A framework for automated cell tracking in phase contrast microscopic videos based on normal velocities

This paper introduces a novel framework for the automated tracking of cells, with a particular focus on the challenging situation of phase contrast microscopic videos. Our framework is based on a topology preserving variational segmentation approach applied to normal velocity components obtained from optical flow computations, which appears to yield robust tracking and automated extraction of cell trajectories. In order to obtain improved trackings of local shape features we discuss an additional correction step based on active contours and the image Laplacian which we optimize for an example class of transformed renal epithelial (MDCK-F) cells. We also test the framework for human melanoma cells and murine neutrophil granulocytes that were seeded on different types of extracellular matrices. The results are validated with manual tracking results.

[1]  D Marr,et al.  Theory of edge detection , 1979, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[2]  Wiro J. Niessen,et al.  Advanced Level-Set-Based Cell Tracking in Time-Lapse Fluorescence Microscopy , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[3]  R. Preuss,et al.  Anomalous dynamics of cell migration , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[4]  Takeo Kanade,et al.  An Iterative Image Registration Technique with an Application to Stereo Vision , 1981, IJCAI.

[5]  Philippe Van Ham,et al.  Tracking of migrating cells under phase-contrast video microscopy with combined mean-shift processes , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[6]  H. Rossmann,et al.  Functional role of Na+–HCO3− cotransport in migration of transformed renal epithelial cells , 2005, The Journal of physiology.

[7]  Albrecht Schwab,et al.  Cells move when ions and water flow , 2006, Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology.

[8]  Kannappan Palaniappan,et al.  Cell Segmentation Using Coupled Level Sets and Graph-Vertex Coloring , 2006, MICCAI.

[9]  Guy Rochard,et al.  Tracking and Characterization of Highly Deformable Cloud Structures , 2000, ECCV.

[10]  K. Miura.  Tracking movement in cell biology. , 2005, Advances in biochemical engineering/biotechnology.

[11]  D. Skuse.  Recovery , 2010, International psychiatry : bulletin of the Board of International Affairs of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

[12]  Jean-Christophe Olivo-Marin,et al.  On the digital trail of mobile cells , 2006, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.

[13]  Scott T. Acton,et al.  Tracking leukocytes in vivo with shape and size constrained active contours , 2002, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[14]  J. Sethian,et al.  A Fast Level Set Method for Propagating Interfaces , 1995 .

[15]  Xiao Han,et al.  A Topology Preserving Level Set Method for Geometric Deformable Models , 2003, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[16]  Frank Jülicher,et al.  Bipedal locomotion in crawling cells. , 2010, Biophysical journal.

[17]  J. Massagué,et al.  Cancer Metastasis: Building a Framework , 2006, Cell.

[18]  Daniel Choquet,et al.  Direct imaging of lateral movements of AMPA receptors inside synapses , 2003, The EMBO journal.

[19]  Vannary Meas-Yedid,et al.  Segmentation and tracking of migrating cells in videomicroscopy with parametric active contours: a tool for cell-based drug testing , 2002, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[20]  Michal Irani,et al.  Computing occluding and transparent motions , 1994, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[21]  Werner Baumgartner,et al.  Characterization of Photophysics and Mobility of Single Molecules in a Fluid Lipid Membrane , 1995 .

[22]  Xiaoxu Wang,et al.  CELL SEGMENTATION AND TRACKING USING TEXTURE-ADAPTIVE SNAKES , 2007, 2007 4th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro.

[23]  Albrecht Schwab,et al.  The glycocalyx maintains a cell surface pH nanoenvironment crucial for integrin-mediated migration of human melanoma cells , 2009, Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology.

[24]  M. Sheetz,et al.  Tracking kinesin-driven movements with nanometre-scale precision , 1988, Nature.

[25]  Kannappan Palaniappan,et al.  Cell segmentation using Hessian-based detection and contour evolution with directional derivatives , 2008, 2008 15th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing.

[26]  H. Geerts,et al.  Nanovid tracking: a new automatic method for the study of mobility in living cells based on colloidal gold and video microscopy. , 1987, Biophysical journal.

[27]  P. Friedl,et al.  Tumour-cell invasion and migration: diversity and escape mechanisms , 2003, Nature Reviews Cancer.

[28]  R. Alon,et al.  Integrin modulation and signaling in leukocyte adhesion and migration , 2007, Immunological reviews.

[29]  Tony F. Chan,et al.  Active contours without edges , 2001, IEEE Trans. Image Process..

[30]  David J. Fleet,et al.  Performance of optical flow techniques , 1994, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[31]  Gilles Bertrand,et al.  Simple points, topological numbers and geodesic neighborhoods in cubic grids , 1994, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[32]  Bo Zhang,et al.  Tracking fluorescent cells with coupled geometric active contours , 2004, 2004 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro (IEEE Cat No. 04EX821).

[33]  Wiro J. Niessen,et al.  Advanced level-set based multiple-cell segmentation and tracking in time-lapse fluorescence microscopy images , 2008, 2008 5th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro.

[34]  P. Vallotton,et al.  Recovery, visualization, and analysis of actin and tubulin polymer flow in live cells: a fluorescent speckle microscopy study. , 2003, Biophysical journal.

[35]  Rachid Deriche,et al.  Tracking complex primitives in an image sequence , 1994, Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Pattern Recognition.

[36]  Rachid Deriche,et al.  Geodesic Active Contours and Level Sets for the Detection and Tracking of Moving Objects , 2000, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[37]  Bryan Heit,et al.  Molecular regulators of leucocyte chemotaxis during inflammation. , 2010, Cardiovascular research.

[38]  Berthold K. P. Horn,et al.  Determining Optical Flow , 1981, Other Conferences.

[39]  Erik Sahai,et al.  The actin cytoskeleton in cancer cell motility , 2009, Clinical & Experimental Metastasis.

[40]  M K Cheezum,et al.  Quantitative comparison of algorithms for tracking single fluorescent particles. , 2001, Biophysical journal.

[41]  D C Barber,et al.  Automated tracking of migrating cells in phase‐contrast video microscopy sequences using image registration , 2009, Journal of microscopy.