TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schmitz, Alexander
A1  - Fischer, Sabine C.
A1  - Mattheyer, Christian
A1  - Pampaloni, Francesco
A1  - Stelzer, Ernst H. K.
T1  - Multiscale image analysis reveals structural heterogeneity of the cell microenvironment in homotypic spheroids
T2  - Scientific reports
N2  - Three-dimensional multicellular aggregates such as spheroids provide reliable in vitro substitutes for tissues. Quantitative characterization of spheroids at the cellular level is fundamental. We present the first pipeline that provides three-dimensional, high-quality images of intact spheroids at cellular resolution and a comprehensive image analysis that completes traditional image segmentation by algorithms from other fields. The pipeline combines light sheet-based fluorescence microscopy of optically cleared spheroids with automated nuclei segmentation (F score: 0.88) and concepts from graph analysis and computational topology. Incorporating cell graphs and alpha shapes provided more than 30 features of individual nuclei, the cellular neighborhood and the spheroid morphology. The application of our pipeline to a set of breast carcinoma spheroids revealed two concentric layers of different cell density for more than 30,000 cells. The thickness of the outer cell layer depends on a spheroid’s size and varies between 50% and 75% of its radius. In differently-sized spheroids, we detected patches of different cell densities ranging from 5 × 105 to 1 × 106 cells/mm3. Since cell density affects cell behavior in tissues, structural heterogeneities need to be incorporated into existing models. Our image analysis pipeline provides a multiscale approach to obtain the relevant data for a system-level understanding of tissue architecture.
KW  - Cell biology
KW  - Image processing
Y1  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/48535
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-485354
SN  - 2045-2322
N1  - Rights and permissions: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
VL  - 7
IS  - Art. 43693
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
PB  - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature
CY  - [London]
ER  -