scholarly journals Cell Tracking Profiler: a user-driven analysis framework for evaluating 4D live cell imaging data

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Mitchell ◽  
Lauryanne Caroff ◽  
Alessandra Vigilante ◽  
Jose Alonso Solis-Lemus ◽  
Constantino Carlos Reyes-Aldasoro ◽  
...  

AbstractAccurate measurements of cell morphology and behaviour are fundamentally important for understanding how disease, molecules and drugs affect cell function in vivo. Using muscle stem cell (muSC) responses to injury in zebrafish as our biological paradigm we have established a ground truth for muSC cell behaviour. This revealed that variability in segmentation and tracking algorithms from commonly used programs are error-prone, leading us to develop a fast semi-automated image analysis pipeline that allows user defined parameters for segmentation and correction of cell tracking. Cell Tracking Profiler (CTP) operates through the freely available Icy platform, and allows user-managed cell tracking from 3D time-lapsed datasets to provide measures of cell shape and movement. Using dimensionality reduction methods, multiple correlation and regression analyses we identify myosin II-dependent parameters of muSC behaviour during regeneration. CTP and the associated statistical tools we have developed thus provide a powerful framework for analysing complex cell behaviour in vivo from 4D datasets.SummaryAnalysis of cell shape and movement from 3D time-lapsed datasets is currently very challenging. We therefore designed Cell Tracking Profiler for analysing cell behaviour from complex datasets and demonstrate its effectiveness by analysing stem cell behaviour during muscle regeneration in zebrafish.

2020 ◽  
Vol 133 (22) ◽  
pp. jcs241422
Author(s):  
Claire Mitchell ◽  
Lauryanne Caroff ◽  
Jose Alonso Solis-Lemus ◽  
Constantino Carlos Reyes-Aldasoro ◽  
Alessandra Vigilante ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTAccurate measurements of cell morphology and behaviour are fundamentally important for understanding how disease, molecules and drugs affect cell function in vivo. Here, by using muscle stem cell (muSC) responses to injury in zebrafish as our biological paradigm, we established a ‘ground truth’ for muSC behaviour. This revealed that segmentation and tracking algorithms from commonly used programs are error-prone, leading us to develop a fast semi-automated image analysis pipeline that allows user-defined parameters for segmentation and correction of cell tracking. Cell Tracking Profiler (CTP) is a package that runs two existing programs, HK Means and Phagosight within the Icy image analysis suite, to enable user-managed cell tracking from 3D time-lapse datasets to provide measures of cell shape and movement. We demonstrate how CTP can be used to reveal changes to cell behaviour of muSCs in response to manipulation of the cell cytoskeleton by small-molecule inhibitors. CTP and the associated tools we have developed for analysis of outputs thus provide a powerful framework for analysing complex cell behaviour in vivo from 4D datasets that are not amenable to straightforward analysis.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1182
Author(s):  
Prince Verma ◽  
Court K. M. Waterbury ◽  
Elizabeth M. Duncan

Tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) are essential for normal cellular function in multicellular organisms, but many TSGs and tumor-suppressing mechanisms remain unknown. Planarian flatworms exhibit particularly robust tumor suppression, yet the specific mechanisms underlying this trait remain unclear. Here, we analyze histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) signal across the planarian genome to determine if the broad H3K4me3 chromatin signature that marks essential cell identity genes and TSGs in mammalian cells is conserved in this valuable model of in vivo stem cell function. We find that this signature is indeed conserved on the planarian genome and that the lysine methyltransferase Set1 is largely responsible for creating it at both cell identity and putative TSG loci. In addition, we show that depletion of set1 in planarians induces stem cell phenotypes that suggest loss of TSG function, including hyperproliferation and an abnormal DNA damage response (DDR). Importantly, this work establishes that Set1 targets specific gene loci in planarian stem cells and marks them with a conserved chromatin signature. Moreover, our data strongly suggest that Set1 activity at these genes has important functional consequences both during normal homeostasis and in response to genotoxic stress.


Blood ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura S. Haneline ◽  
Troy A. Gobbett ◽  
Rema Ramani ◽  
Madeleine Carreau ◽  
Manuel Buchwald ◽  
...  

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a complex genetic disorder characterized by progressive bone marrow (BM) aplasia, chromosomal instability, and acquisition of malignancies, particularly myeloid leukemia. We used a murine model containing a disruption of the murine homologue ofFANCC (FancC) to evaluate short- and long-term multilineage repopulating ability of FancC −/− cells in vivo. Competitive repopulation assays were conducted where “test”FancC −/− or FancC +/+ BM cells (expressing CD45.2) were cotransplanted with congenic competitor cells (expressing CD45.1) into irradiated mice. In two independent experiments, we determined that FancC −/− BM cells have a profound decrease in short-term, as well as long-term, multilineage repopulating ability. To determine quantitatively the relative production of progeny cells by each test cell population, we calculated test cell contribution to chimerism as compared with 1 × 105 competitor cells. We determined that FancC −/− cells have a 7-fold to 12-fold decrease in repopulating ability compared with FancC +/+cells. These data indicate that loss of FancC function results in reduced in vivo repopulating ability of pluripotential hematopoietic stem cells, which may play a role in the development of the BM failure in FA patients. This model system provides a powerful tool for evaluation of experimental therapeutics on hematopoietic stem cell function.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (19) ◽  
pp. E4463-E4472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Lee ◽  
Ana Isabel Espirito Santo ◽  
Stefan Zwingenberger ◽  
Lawrence Cai ◽  
Thomas Vogl ◽  
...  

A major discovery of recent decades has been the existence of stem cells and their potential to repair many, if not most, tissues. With the aging population, many attempts have been made to use exogenous stem cells to promote tissue repair, so far with limited success. An alternative approach, which may be more effective and far less costly, is to promote tissue regeneration by targeting endogenous stem cells. However, ways of enhancing endogenous stem cell function remain poorly defined. Injury leads to the release of danger signals which are known to modulate the immune response, but their role in stem cell-mediated repair in vivo remains to be clarified. Here we show that high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is released following fracture in both humans and mice, forms a heterocomplex with CXCL12, and acts via CXCR4 to accelerate skeletal, hematopoietic, and muscle regeneration in vivo. Pretreatment with HMGB1 2 wk before injury also accelerated tissue regeneration, indicating an acquired proregenerative signature. HMGB1 led to sustained increase in cell cycling in vivo, and using Hmgb1−/− mice we identified the underlying mechanism as the transition of multiple quiescent stem cells from G0 to GAlert. HMGB1 also transitions human stem and progenitor cells to GAlert. Therefore, exogenous HMGB1 may benefit patients in many clinical scenarios, including trauma, chemotherapy, and elective surgery.


Circulation ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 116 (suppl_16) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Terrovitis ◽  
Keng Fai Kwok ◽  
Riikka Läutamaki ◽  
James M Engles ◽  
Andreas S Barth ◽  
...  

Background. Stem cells offer the promise of cardiac repair. Stem cell labeling is a prerequisite to tracking cell fate in vivo . Aim. To develop a reporter gene that permits in vivo stem cell labeling. We examined the sodium-iodide symporter (NIS), a protein that is not expressed in the heart, but promotes cellular uptake of 99m Tc or 124 I, thus permitting cell tracking by SPECT or PET imaging, respectively. Methods. The human NIS gene ( h NIS) was expressed in rat cardiac derived stem cells (rCDCs) using lentivirus driven by the CAG or CMV promoter. NIS function in transduced cells was confirmed by in vitro 99m Tc uptake. Eleven rats were injected with 1 or 2 million rCDCs intramyocardially immediately after LAD ligation; 6 with CMV-NIS and 5 with CAG-NIS cells. Dual isotope SPECT imaging was performed on a small animal SPECT/CT system, using 99m Tc for cell detection and 201 Tl for myocardial delineation, 24 hrs after cell injection. PET was performed on a small animal PET scanner using 124 I for cell tracking and 13 NH 3 for myocardial delineation, 48hrs after cell injection. Contrast Ratio (CR) was defined as [(signal in the cells)-(signal in blood pool)]/signal in blood pool. High resolution ex vivo SPECT scans of explanted hearts (n=3) were obtained to confirm that in vivo signal was derived from the cell injection site. The presence of h NIS mRNA was confirmed in injected hearts after animal sacrifice (n=2), by real-time RT-PCR. Results. NIS expression in rCDCs did not affect cell viability/proliferation (p=0.718, ctr vs NIS). In vitro 99m Tc uptake was 6.0±0.9% vs 0.07±0.05, without and with perchlorate (specific NIS blocker), respectively. NIS-transduced rCDCs were easily visualized as spots of 99m Tc or 124 I uptake within a perfusion deficit in the SPECT and PET images. CR was considerably higher when cells were transduced by the CMV-NIS virus in comparison to the CAG-NIS virus (70±40% vs 28±29%, p=0.085). Ex vivo small animal SPECT imaging confirmed that in vivo 99m Tc signals were localized to the injection sites. PCR confirmed the presence of h NIS mRNA in injected hearts. Conclusion. NIS expression allows non invasive in vivo stem cell tracking in the myocardium, using both SPECT and PET. This reporter gene has great potential for translation in future clinical applications.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 2179-2192
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Xie ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
Bing Zhang ◽  
Bin Wang ◽  
Liudi Wang ◽  
...  

Until now, there is no effective method for tracking transplanted stem cells in human. Ruicun (RC) is a new ultra-small SPIONs agent that has been approved by China Food and Drug Administration for iron supplementation but not as a stem cell tracer in clinic. In this study, we demonstrated magnetic resonance imaging-based tracking of RC-labeled human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplanted to locally injured site of rat spinal cords. We then comprehensively evaluated the safety and quality of the RC-labeled MSCs under good manufacturing practicecompliant conditions, to investigate the feasibility of SPIONs for inner tracking in stem cell-based therapy (SCT). Our results showed that RC labeling at appropriate dose (200 μg/mL) did not have evident impacts on characteristics of MSCs in vitro, demonstrating safety, non-carcinogenesis, and non-tissue inflammation in vivo. The systematic assessments of intracellular biocompatibility indicated that the RC labeled MSCs met with mandatory requirements and standards for law-regulation systems regarding SCT, facilitating translation of cell-tracking technologies to clinical trials.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Inès Barthélémy ◽  
Jean-Laurent Thibaud ◽  
Pauline de Fornel ◽  
Marco Cassano ◽  
Isabel Punzón ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 26-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samik Upadhaya ◽  
Boris Reizis ◽  
Catherine M. Sawai

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